Interview by James Cortland
We all know the story by now:
Thirty years ago, six friends, brought together by fate, set out to end the eternal night--and ended up making television history.
Friendship is Magic did a lot more than just introduce us to the fantastical world of unicorns, pegasi, and cutie marks known as Equestria. Itinvented the concept of “must-see” TV. It influenced toys (anyone else still have a plastic Element of Harmony in the attic?), clothing (that Princess Dress was everywhere for a while), playtime (who else joined a Crusaders club when they were little?) and fashion (So many mares asked their stylists for “The Rarity” that it became anything but). The theme song, which was a #1 hit in its time, stillgets requests on the radio. And references to “Twenty percent cooler!” and “The! Worst! Possible! Thing!!” still get ponies laughing. Even now, nearly twenty years after the show ended, it remains near and dear to the hearts of a whole generation, with new ponies discovering the Magic of Friendship every day.
And now, the Hobble-Ungulate Brothers have announced they are working on a new iteration of the show, to be titled Friendship is Magic: A New Generation, due out sometime next year. But that’s not all! HUB has announced another special treat: they’re getting the old gang back together! A two-hour reunion special, titled “The Last Problem,” will put a firm cap on the story of Friendship is Magic, both to remind us of why we fell in love with these dear ponies in the first place, and to help transition to A New Generation. Even though “The Last Problem” isn’t due to air for another six months or so, Ponies magazine still managed to convince the original cast to sit down for an interview to talk about their time together, their memories of Friendship, and their feelings on the new show.
I must admit, though I’ve been watching Friendship is Magic since I was in diapers, I wasn’t born until a couple months after Twilight and her friends finally put the Legion of Doom into stone for good. And yet, walking onto the freshly-reassembled set of Sugarcube Corner still felt like I was coming home. I wasn’t the only one to feel that way: watching each of the original Mane Six come walking through those old, familiar doors was an experience I will never forget.
Rosemary, who played Twilight Sparkle, was the first to arrive. When she first walked on set, she hesitated, then walked over and began examining the props carefully. I could see in her eyes that she was remembering, her mind going back all those years to a time when she had been little more than a simple actress playing a librarian. I even thought I saw a tear come to her eye (and, really, can you blame her)?
Regina came next. Time hasn’t been kind to the actress who played Rarity, but it has done nothing to dull her old confidence. She strode onto set like she owned the place, then went right over to Rosemary and pulled her in for a hug.
Clementine, who we know better as Applejack, walked in the door and stopped cold. She looked around almost like she was in a dream, and even reached out to touch a table, to see if it really was real after all this time.
When Sweetpea arrived, I had to do a double-take. For just a moment, I thought Pinkie Pie had actually stepped out of the television and onto the set. She slipped right back into her role, hopping behind the counter and handing out the wooden cake-pops still on display--though not before peeking under the counter to see if the signature she’d left behind all those years ago was still there.
Galeforce trotted in next. I knew not to expect her trademark rainbow mane, but it was still a shock to see her sporting a mostly-white hairdo. None of the others even blinked, though, instead welcoming her with open arms.
The last to show up was Buttercup, who slipped quietly onto set when the rest of us weren’t looking, just like you would expect Fluttershy to do. She seemed to barely even notice the set itself, let alone me; instead, she made a beeline for her friends, tears already misting her eyes before they even said hello.
After a whole round of tearful hugs and reminiscing, I managed to get all six of them seated around one of the tables. It took us another few minutes to get started--after all, Ponies had provided us with a set of specially-baked Sugarcube Corner cupcakes that needed to be eaten--but after that, I launched into my questions.
* * *
“That was something both of us needed to figure out--and we figured it out together.”
* * *
“So,” I asked, “What’s it like to be back on-set after all this time?”
Rosemary raised her hoof first. “I can take that one,” she said meekly.
I nodded, and she let out a big sigh. “For me, at least--I don’t want to speak for everypony—” she added hurriedly.
Regina gave her an encouraging nod. “Go on, Rosey,” she said. “We don’t mind.”
Rosemary glanced briefly around the circle, then back at me. “Well,” she said, “it feels almost like I never left. Everything’s the same--or, almost the same,” she added, with a little chuckle. “Close enough to remember what it was like to be here all the time. To live in this wonderful fantasy world, where everything always worked out if you believed in it hard enough.” She sighed again. “Sometimes, I wish I could just never leave this place,” she said. “The world out there is scary sometimes. And being someplace where everything makes sense, somehow…” She smiled a nervous little smile. “Well. It’s tempting,” she finished.
Rosemary, during our conversation on the Sugarcube Corner set.
I nodded. “I would have thought,” I said slowly, “that you, of all ponies, wouldn’t want to stick around...”
She cocked her head. “Why’s that?” she asked--but, before I could answer, her eyes widened. “Oh! The Princess thing.”
A couple of the others chuckled, and she grinned sheepishly.
“Yeah,” she said, “I’m… not the most outgoing pony, if you haven’t noticed. My idea of a nice time is a nice cup of tea by the fire, in bed by nine. But that’s one thing that I really appreciated about being able to play Twilight,” she continued. “She’s like me, at least at first. She wants to be friends, but she wants to be friends on her terms. She wants to be able to just tell everyone ‘I’ve got something I need to read, I’m going home now, see you tomorrow,’ and have them understand. Which,” she added, “would be nice--but most ponies just don’t work that way.”
She smiled again, and this time, her smile was genuine.
“That was the funny thing,” she continued. “Twilight and I--it felt almost like we grew up together. Princess Celestia made Twilight go and make friends--almost pushed her into putting herself out there. The same with me,” she said. “I auditioned not really expecting anything--and before I knew it, I was a star! Everyone wanted my autograph, everyone wanted to shake my hoof, all these things--but all I wanted was to go home.That wasn’t really an option, though--for either of us,” she said, chuckling.
“But as time went on,” she continued, “as Twilight became more and more important to the show, and as I got more and more famous, both of us figured it out, somehow. We learned how to deal with the pressure, how to put on a smile, how to be the celebrity that people needed us to be. But we also learned to say No, to tell others when we needed to take care of ourselves a little bit. That’s the sort of thing they don’t teach in drama school,” she added, “but you have to be able to do that, otherwise you’re going to kill yourself with your schedule. That was something both of us needed to figure out--and we figured it out together.”
* * *
“I was making just enough to pay for a tiny bed in an apartment with four other mares. And it was there, so far from my family, my friends, and everything that I’d ever known that Equestria started coming back to me.”
* * *
Most fans, especially new ones, may not be aware of how much Friendship is Magic struggled, especially early on--and, even now, we still may not have all the pieces. But Clementine kindly offered to fill us in, at least as much as she could.
“It’s no secret, of course,” she said, without a trace of the accent that made her so famous, “that I was the head writer on the show. What you might not know, though, is that it was really Gale who helped me figure the whole thing out.”
“Yeah,” Galeforce interrupted. “Clem and I were friends as little fillies. She, being the lovable nerd she is, read pretty much everything she could get her hooves on--especially fairy tales and mythology. Which is why—”
“Which is why,” Clem said, taking over again, “when the two of us were little, we spent so much time running through the woods, pretending to be pegasi and unicorns and hippogriffs and a dozen other things. The two of us built our own little world together--the world that would eventually become Equestria.”
“Oh?” I asked. “How close was your childhood Equestria to the one we saw on screen?”
Clem shook her head. “Almost completely different. I think—” here, she turned to Gale “--didn’t we have a kingdom of seaponies or something…?”
“Actual seaponies,” Gale confirmed with a laugh. “Those weird little fish-things. We learned about them in school, but I think the teacher forgot to tell us how big they actually were...”
“Anyways,” Clem continued, “it was admittedly kinda silly--just us two having a good time and making things up as we went along. But still, I held onto those memories all through school--and even after the two of us went off to separate colleges.”
“...which led to you at the coffee shop,” I prompted her.
Clementine, in the HUB offices, hard at work on her upcoming biopic, Hi-Ho Silver, Away!
Surprisingly, Clem rolled her eyes. “That story about me in the coffee shop coming up with the whole thing all at once is just good PR,” she said. “The actual story’s a lot more complicated, of course. After I graduated, I found that a degree in scriptwriting wasn’t actually worth all that much. I ended up working at a big-city hayburger place--not a coffee shop,” she corrected with a laugh. “I was making just enough to pay for a tiny bed in an apartment with four other mares. And it was there, so far from my family, my friends, and everything that I’d ever known that Equestria started coming back to me. It reminded me of a simpler time, back when things were easier, when life just didn’t hurt so much. And I figured, silly as it was, the idea that your friendships could solve basically any problem in the world was something that most people could relate to.”
“And that’s how Equestria was made!” Sweetpea cried, getting a laugh from all seven of us.
“More or less,” Clem confirmed. “I drew up a script for a two-part miniseries set in Equestria, and shopped it around to any studio that would let me in the door. Finally, I heard back from HUB, and they… well, they didn’t love it—”
Regina interjected with a theatrical gasp. “They didn’t love it?” she asked. “Six friends fighting to save the world from ultimate evil? That’s such a unique plot and everything!”
Clementine just rolled her eyes and kept going. “They weren’t enthusiastic about all the special effects that the script called for, and thought naming the villain Despair was a little on the nose. So they asked me for a second draft, which is when I had to come up with the warring princesses and that sort of stuff. And that’s how Equestria was made,” she added, with a significant glance at Sweetpea.
* * *
“She was so easy to be around. Things just seemed to go smoother when she was on set with us.”
* * *
Of course, the next step was to actually assemble the cast--that is, the friends that Friendship was all about. Clem revealed that she actually had her friend Galeforce in mind when she was writing the character of Rainbow Dash--she thought her stubborn, short-tempered, and yet deeply caring childhood friend would be perfect for the Element of Loyalty. Thankfully, Gale accepted the part, and the show had its first of the six main cast members.
Both Rarity and Twilight came from a more traditional casting call--but neither auditioned for their original role. Regina auditioned as a voice actress for the character of Princess Luna, but the director decided the posh accent she used for the Princess would work better for the fashion designer. Rosemary, on the other hoof, naturally has an easygoing, caring personality, and actually tried out for the role of Pinkie Pie. However, Clementine thought her mare-next-door charm would be better suited for Twilight Sparkle, despite the fact that the Twilight’s high-strung personality didn’t seem like it would fit in her wheelhouse.
Casting actually turned up the actress for Applejack as well, though only by accident. During the auditions, the various writers read lines from the scripts so the actresses could respond to them. As it turned out, all the writers had trouble with Applejack’s accent--except for Clementine, who could put it on and take it off as easily as one of the apple farmer’s trademark hats (“I have some country cousins, myself,” she would later say, “and I just remembered what it was like to spend summers on their farm.”). Before long, nopony--including Clemetine herself--could see anypony else taking the role.
Though auditions had been fruitful, they were still looking for the perfect ponies to portray the last two friends. Pinkie Pie, at least, practically dropped into their laps. A couple of the HUB scriptwriters met with Clem at a local comedy club for a working lunch, and the question of who to cast as the Element of Laughter came up. At that exact moment, the lights dimmed, and out trotted the first comedian of the hour--a struggling comic known as Sweetpea. She wasn’t particularly funny, at least not compared to the others, but her energy and enthusiasm were compelling enough that they tracked her down with a contract that afternoon.
The last pony they found was Fluttershy. The show was nearly due to start shooting, and was already threatening to go over-budget, so they had to find someone inexpensive. Luckily, HUB had an attractive young extra named Buttercup already on their rolls who was more than happy to join a higher-profile production. And that was how Friendship finally found its cast, squeaking in days before production was due to start in earnest.
Of course, there was one final casting decision I had to ask about, and that was the guest stars.
“One of the things that Friendship was best known for was all the guests you had on,” I said. “You had a lot of celebrities on the show back in the day.”
“Yep,” Clem confirmed. “After the first season or two, we had a whole parade of agents knocking down our door.”
I nodded. “Which one of them was your favorite to work with?”
“Ooh,” Buttercup began. “Well, I loved meeting Orion, from that one space show… Oh! And my little nephew begged me to get Epona’s autograph--”
“Definitely Keystone,” Sweetpea interrupted. Instantly, the rest oohed and nodded.
“Keystone,” I said. “She’s the… the gray mare with...?”
“The yellow mane, uh-huh,” Sweetpea replied. “She was just so nice, always cracking up and making others laugh…”
Fans, of course, will know Keystone by her more familiar name, “Muffins.” She first came to the attention of viewers after an embarrassing scene in the miniseries. Apparently, Sweetpea had a hard time with some of her lines in the library, and had to do several takes in a row. As Keystone explained later, she was an extra in the background of that scene, and watching Sweetpea struggle so much started to make her nervous. To relieve some of the tension, she crossed her eyes to try and make some of the other extras laugh--and, of course, that was the take that made it into the final edit.
After the miniseries finished filming, Keystone moved on to minor roles in other projects--but, after fans fell in love with her, HUB brought her back as an infrequent, but well-beloved, guest star. Cast members and fans alike looked forward to her every appearance, especially to the light and energy she brought to the set.
“She was so easy to be around,” Sweetpea said. “Things just seemed to go smoother when she was on set with us.”
“And she always did her best to make us feel special,” Rosemary added. “What was it she used to bring in all the time? Cupcakes…?”
“Muffins,” Buttercup corrected. “Just about every time she was on set, she brought some fresh-baked muffins. Of course, they were usually gone by the time I got to them,” she added sourly, “but she just wanted to be a good coworker, I think. Even after she got famous.”
Oddly enough for an extra, Keystone has had one of the most successful post-Friendship careers. She’s had one or two small acting parts here and there, but her biggest successes have come from her time as a motivational speaker. Audiences the world over have hung on every word as she shares stories about her time on-set, then expertly weaves those experiences into real-life lessons about taking care of yourself and others. Even in a stadium of thousands, her speeches somehow managed to be surprisingly intimate: she could be hilariously self-deprecating, heartbreakingly candid, and disarmingly humble all at the same time. And yet, she has still indicated a willingness to return to Friendship, if they ever have need of her again. After all, Friendship helped to shape her into who she is today, just as it has for so many others.
* * *
“I was supposed to be the beautiful one. And I looked so good on camera! Or, at least, that’s what I was telling myself.”
* * *
“This one’s specifically for Regina,” I said. “From what I’ve heard, you had some pretty significant struggles while filming the show, is that right?”
Regina took a deep breath, then nodded. “I knew this was going to come up,” she muttered. “But, yes I did.”
“What was it like,” I began, “having to put on a good face for the show while you were struggling so much behind the scenes?”
“Well, that’s what started it, isn’t it?” she replied. “The part about the good face, I mean. Show business is absolutely wonderful when everything is going as it should. But there’s a dark side--yes, even with Friendship--that we don’t really talk about much.”
Regina was widely praised for her portrayal of Rarity, who she frequently played as vain, dramatic, and quick to anger. Unfortunately, the reason why she performed so well was because she, herself, was struggling with some of those same issues.
“When you’re in front of the camera, it’s all about this,” she said, gesturing to her face. “Oh, makeup can do miracles, of course. And you can still make it in show biz if you’re funny enough, or if you are willing to be typecast as the best friend with the great personality. But all too often, beauty is still what it’s all about.”
Regina had obsessed over her looks ever since she was small, a problem which her role on Friendship only exacerbated.
“I mean, come on,” she said. “You take a young mare that already worries she’s not pretty enough, and you make her play a character who shouts that same fear to the skies every other episode? What do you expect to happen? I was able to keep it together for a surprisingly long while, but, well—” she shrugged “--working so close with other ponies for so long isn’t exactly conducive to keeping secrets.”
Perhaps as a result of her fears, Regina had struggled with an eating disorder for many years. She did her best to keep it under control, but, after she was cast as Rarity, it soon became unmanageable.
“I was supposed to be the beautiful one,” she said. “And I looked so good for the camera! Or, at least,” she said, “that’s what I was telling myself.”
Two old friends: Regina (Right) and Buttercup (Left) during our interview.
Regina would regularly starve herself, sometimes for days at a time, especially when a major role for Rarity was coming up.
“Everyone thought it was just good acting,” she continued. “I was so irritable all the time. I would hardly eat anything on-set, and, when I did, I didn’t let anyone see me eating. All of those are symptoms of anorexia, yes--but they also meshed so well with Rarity’s personality that everyone assumed I was just really getting into character or something.”
“So what changed?” I asked.
“It was all those damn spa visits that did it,” she continued. “It was easy to hide things most of the time--after all, Rarity spent so much time in fancy dresses that it was hard to get a good look at how thin I had gotten. But, as you know, Rarity spent a lot of time in the spa, and a lot of that time in the hot tub. I tried to get in and out of the water as quickly as possible--but I wasn’t fast enough for Rosemary.”
After one particularly lengthy shoot at the spa set, Rosemary approached Regina and asked her privately about her health. Even as scared as she was, something about Rose’s genuine care helped Regina to open up--and, when it became clear to Rosemary that she was already in over her head, she quietly rallied the rest of the cast to her side.
“It’s the sort of thing you hear about, but only when it happens to a friend of a friend,” Regina said. “They all came together to help me out. It was more than just an intervention--all of them wanted to make sure I was okay, and I was getting the help I needed.”
With their support, Regina was able to work up the courage to see a specialist, who helped her work past her fears, as well as design a diet that would meet her needs. It was a long and painful process, though, one that proved especially challenging for Regina.
“I wouldn’t have stuck to it without everyone’s help,” she said. “Anytime I thought of just going to bed hungry again, all I had to do was think of their disappointed faces, and that was enough for me.”
Regina had been pushing herself so hard for so long with so little to run on that her health has been permanently affected by her struggles. After twenty years, especially, it’s not hard to see how badly her body was damaged during that time. But still, she was able to turn her experience into something useful.
“In the end,” she said, “I really do think that it helped my acting--though not for the reasons I thought. We came closer together, the six of us, as we all tried to help me beat this thing. And that real-life friendship gave me the strength to be the best Rarity I could be, even when I wanted to just curl up and die.”
But she wasn’t content to leave it there. Regina has been able to leverage her fame and influence into helping establish a foundation for eating disorder research. And, though she doesn’t work the motivational speaking circuit nearly as hard as Keystone, she has continued to be an advocate for mental and nutritional health.
“I know these are things we don’t like to talk about,” she said, “especially now, when we’re all here to talk about all our fun memories together. But I like to think that I might be able to help change that attitude, eventually.” She smiled. “After all,” she said, “if a little pony who has grown up admiring Rarity sees me come on television to talk about how important it is to take care of yourself, I would like to think that might be enough to change their lives.”
* * *
“I started to suspect that something was going on between Clem and I, but I thought it was because she was jealous of me.”
* * *
“So, I have to ask,” I began, “you’ve been talking a lot about the good memories you have with each other. But the show itself spent a lot of time focusing on interpersonal drama. Was there any friction on set that didn’t make the cut?”
There was a moment of silence, then, one by one, each of the ponies turned to look at Buttercup. It took her a moment to realize they were staring at her; when she finally noticed, she looked around, blushed, and gave me a weak smile.
I stared back at her in wide-eyed astonishment. “Y-you?” I stammered. “I never would have thought of you, of all ponies, as a troublemaker—”
“I wasn’t,” she replied--earning a scoff from Galeforce at the other end of the table. “Not on purpose,” she added quickly.
“Before Friendship,” she explained, “I’d only really had one or two other roles, all of them as extras. And then--well—” she smiled. “One day, I was working at a dry-cleaning place and living off instant noodles, and the next, I was Fluttershy! A big name, a big--well, bigger--salary! It was like all my dreams came true at once!” She sighed. “And, well… it all sorta went to my head.”
“Sorta,” Clementine repeated disdainfully. “You started acting like the show was called The Fluttershy Hour, Starring Buttercup.”
At this, Sweetpea giggled nervously, and Buttercup just looked down. “Yeah,” she admitted, “I kinda did, didn’t I?”
Rosemary leaned over and put a hoof on her shoulder. “Any of us would have done the same,” she said. “All that fame, all that money, all so sudden—”
“Even so,” Buttercup interrupted, “That wasn’t fair. Wasn’t fair to any of you.” She looked up at Clementine. “Especially you.”
Clementine, it seemed, had taken Buttercup’s sudden arrogance as a personal offense. After all, the show was her baby, not Buttercup’s. Inevitably, that resentment started to work its way into the scripts, with several episodes picking on Fluttershy in one way or another. Early episodes featured her getting bullied by a griffon, completely failing to climb a mountain, screaming at a bunch of helpless animals, and, after an ill-advised self-help meeting, lashing out at her friends’ worst insecurities.
“I started to suspect that something was going on between Clem and I,” she admitted, “but I thought it was because she was jealous of me.”
It wasn’t until late in season 3, when Clementine wrote an episode about Fluttershy turning into a vampire pony, that Buttercup couldn’t deny it any longer. Though fans enjoyed the episode, it’s not hard to see why it upset her so badly: Fluttershy got turned into a monster, and Applejack led the charge to run her out of town. Turns out that was the come-to-Celestia moment Buttercup really needed: the table read culminated in a tearful shouting match, which only ended when she stormed out of the room, threatening to quit on the spot. And Things only got worse when Buttercup’s agent showed up on set and informed everyone she had decided to take two weeks off to re-evaluate her relationship with the show.
Thankfully, though, that two weeks was apparently exactly what she needed, for Buttercup came back from her vacation an entirely different pony. After a great deal of soul-searching, she came to the realization that she didn’t like who she was turning into. She had fallen out of touch with who she was as a pony, and her work was starting to suffer as a result.
Upon her return, she sat down with her co-stars and had a real heart-to-heart. She promised to each of them that she would do everything she could to keep from becoming that pony again, and asked their forgiveness for all the ways she’d hurt them. She asked only that they push the episode about the vampire bats to season 4, to give her a little more time to prepare for the role--and Clem, in return, offered to rewrite the worst parts of the script.
“Sounds like quite the friendship problem,” I said with a smirk.
Buttercup laughed. “It’s true, though,” she said. “That’s why this show means so much to so many ponies. We were brought together by coincidence, or fate, or whatever you want to call it, and, before long, we were something more. Before long, it was almost like we were family.”
* * *
“The fans--those damn fans--every time we were on the rocks, they’d do something stupid and heroic to save the show.”
* * *
Of course, Friendship is Magic wouldn’t have gotten anywhere if it didn’t have its fans. And the show needed that support, especially early on. HUB didn’t have much faith in the show, especially not the initial miniseries. They broadcast it, true--but only once, in an unfavorable time slot late at night, and barely advertised it at all. And yet, against all odds, audiences loved it. The themes of betrayal, friendship, and redemption, as well as the timeless setting and the unexpected chemistry among the cast, drew the attention of audiences nationwide. The first episode secured only average ratings for its time slot, but by the time the second episode aired a week later, word-of-mouth made the audience almost double. Soon, HUB was flooded with letters and phone calls requesting a rebroadcast, a home video release, and--of course--a full series. The fans really latched onto this last possibility, and soon, petitions were circulating, fanart was flourishing, and entire rafts of letters demanding more Friendship were inundating the studio every day. Before much longer, HUB caved--and we all found out that we would, once again, be returning to Equestria.
But, even with all that support, the show still could have failed. Fantasy productions are hideously expensive to film even at the best of times--and Clem’s script for the miniseries had called for a manticore, a sea serpent, and a sphinx, let alone all the makeup and prosthetics. The staff reluctantly cut Applejack’s encounter with the Sphinx, replacing it with a more personal moment between her and Twilight, but even so, the main cast still had to take a cut in salary to bring the show in under budget. And it didn’t help that there was always a demand for more special effects.
“So, as I understand it,” I said, “there was a lot of CGI that went into Friendship. The Princesses, Discord, Tirek—”
“We used practical effects when we could,” Clementine interrupted. “Spike the dragon, for one, was a puppet all the way up until he got his wings. And the kirin were just regular ponies with rubber scales glued on. We tried to use a puppet for Discord, too, but he proved just too complicated. We ended up using a claymation model for a while before giving up and switching to CGI, but it worked out better that way. The fact that he kept on switching up what he looked like really helped sell the whole Chaos God thing, despite the fact it was still as expensive as hell. But yeah, we ended up using a lot of CGI actors.”
“What was that like?” I asked. “I can’t imagine it would be very easy…”
Clementine rolled her eyes. “Whenever we had a part for a griffon or a changeling or something, we had to have a mo-cap actor on set. They always wore a stupid-looking green suit that went all the way up over their heads, with ping-pong balls glued all over the place. Since we couldn’t see the actors’ faces, and all their lines got re-recorded later anyways, we just had to imagine what their reactions might be and work off of that. It was almost like acting blindfolded.”
“I always hated talking to Princess Celestia,” Rosemary chipped in. “Her actress was up on stilts, and had a giant styrofoam bust tied on top of her head. I mean, at least I knew where I was supposed to be looking, but it was really hard to act all awed and humble looking up at something that made me want to laugh every time I looked at it.”
“Sounds rough,” I agreed. “Was that your biggest struggle with the show, then?”
“Not at all,” Regina said without hesitation. "The hardest part was the makeup."
“Makeup? Really?” I replied, surprised. The others all nodded sagely. “But Friendship won all sorts of awards for its makeup!” I protested
“True,” Regina admitted, “but that didn’t make it any easier to wear the stuff.” I gestured for her to keep going, and she sighed theatrically.
“Getting ready to film anything was quite a production--sometimes, almost more than the scene itself,” she said. “For one, there was the mane dye—” at this, she looked to Galeforce, who nodded enthusiastically “—not to mention those prosthetics. For our horns, they had to shave a little patch, right here,” she said, gesturing to her forehead, “then glue the thing on. And then they had to run wires to the battery pack so it could glow or whatnot. Those were always awkward and heavy, and they kept on changing where they kept them. Sometimes they tried to hide them in our manes, or glue them on our shoulders or neck, wherever they thought the camera wouldn’t see… Ugh, such a mess. And the wings--I only had to wear them once, thank goodness...”
Buttercup nodded. “They strapped them on pretty tight, because they’d have to flap around and everything without wiggling around,” she said. “That, and we’d be on wires half the time so it looked like we were actually flying. So, after an hour or two, I’d start getting all sore—” she gestured around her middle.
“Were they really that bad?” I asked, looking at the others. Galeforce laughed in response.
“Butters hated her wings so much,” she said, “they actually started replacing them with CGI. That’s why Fluttershy stays on the ground so much--she’s not actually wearing her wings half the time!”
“And why do you think I wrote those two Discord episodes?” Clementine added. “Two weeks of filming where we didn’t have to deal with wings or horns at all? Sign us up!”
A rare production photo showing Buttercup between takes.
I started to laugh, but Regina cut me off. “That’s not even the worst part,” she said. “The worst was the cutie marks.”
A wave of grimaces rippled around the circle. I looked around, confused. “Is there something I’m missing?” I asked.
Rosemary sighed. “The thing about cutie marks,” she said, “is they had to be fairly detailed. It’s really hard to make that work with traditional mane dye--you can do it, but not easily, and not reliably.”
“So every day of filming,” Regina said, “we had to sit perfectly still while someone painted the damn things on, and had to stay still for a half-hour while it dried. Plus,” she added, “the paint wasn’t waterproof, so sometimes they had to be reapplied mid-filming.”
“They weren’t waterproof?” I asked. “But what about that one scene with Starlight Glimmer, where she—”
“I know the one,” Regina interrupted again. “The one where Honeysuckle accidentally washed off one mark, and revealed another?
“That’s the one,” I replied with a nod.
“Ooh,” Regina continued, “when the girls and I saw those takes, we were so jealous! It would have made things ten times easier, if we had cutie marks like that! But it actually backfired--the waterproof paint they used actually stained her coat an ugly green, in a way that would have been really difficult to cover up.”
“I remember that, too,” Clem said. “I’d actually written a bigger part for Starlight in season five. But with Honeysuckle’s coat all messed up, we had to scale her back a lot.” She sighed. “Would have been nice to give her a little more character development before that finale…”
That finale. The season five finale featured so many sets in such a short period of time that it ate up the budget for four episodes by itself. So, Clem and the writers did what they always did: ended the season on a high note, and tried to wrap things up so that, if they never filmed another episode, fans wouldn’t feel cheated.
“But that was the thing,” Sweetpea explained to me. “The fans--those damn fans--every time we were on the rocks, they’d do something stupid and heroic to save the show. When rumors circulated that the show would be cancelled after season three, fans organized a letter-writing campaign to keep the lights on. When Twilight ate at The Hay Burger, fans around the country showed up asking for the Twilight Special, just so the bigwigs would know they appreciated that they’d sponsored the show. And then, after Rarity opened her boutique in Canterlot, enough fans signed a petition that they convinced Hoofa Thoroughbred to wear one of her designs to the Mister Eds. With that sort of support, how could HUB not say yes?”
But that enthusiasm actually proved to be the show’s downfall, in part. It was the need to innovate and always do something bigger and better that arguably killed the show.
Season eight, in particular, was rather troubled. After the pitch for a Cutie Mark Crusaders spin-off fell flat, the staff decided to go all-in on their next proposal, actually writing it into the plot so it couldn’t just get swept under the rug. They hoped that the season 7 finale, which was already expensive on its own, would ensure the Pillars of Equestria pilot got picked up. However, it turned out that the Pillars just didn’t have the same appeal as the Mane Six, and HUB ended up passing on them after all. By that point, however, Friendship had already put all their eggs in that basket. They’d been counting on the extra revenue to pay for season eight’s expensive School of Friendship set, not to mention the costumes for all the new creatures they were going to introduce. Clem and the writers scrambled to cut back the role of the Student Six to the bare minimum, but by that point, it was too late. Season eight bit deep into HUB’s already-tight budget, and, even with a scaled-back season nine, everyone involved could see the hoofwriting on the wall.
Even so, the cast never lost hope. They always did their best to make the best possible product for their viewers, and poured their hearts and souls into the production up until the bitter end. And the fans loved them for it.
* * *
“Rainbow Dash was becoming so important to so many ponies that we decided we wouldn’t do anything that could have jeopardized her image.”
* * *
“Galeforce,” I began, “you gained quite a reputation for playing pranks, both in and out of character.”
She looked puzzled at the sudden change of subject, but nodded anyways.
“Yep,” she said, a note of pride in her voice. “Everyone always said that Buttercup was such a good actress, having to act so scared all the time. That was all because of me--she was just so fun to scare!” She gave me a mischievous grin. “More than a few of her screams are absolutely genuine, by the way.” She smirked, as Buttercup shot her a dirty look. “That six-pack of rubber spiders was the best investment I ever made…”
“Well,” I said, “I think, after all this time, our audience would be absolutely thrilled to hear you tell us all about the biggest prank you ever pulled.”
She frowned again, definitely confused. “What do you mean?” she said cautiously. “You’re not talking about that one time with the Spike puppet…?”
“No,” I responded with a laugh. “Though, now I have more questions. But, no, I wasn’t talking about that--I was wondering about the trick you pulled on all the fans.”
Galeforce’s eyes went wide, but still, she just shook her head. “I don’t know—” she began,
I held up a hoof for quiet, then turned in my seat. “Alright!” I called. “You can come out now!”
And suddenly, four sets of hooves clip-clopped across the mostly-empty soundstage. Everyone turned to watch as the swinging doors opened and--with a squeal of surprise and joy from Galeforce--a stallion and their three foals walked onto the set.
Ponies Magazine is pleased to here reveal one of the best-kept secrets about Friendship is Magic: Galeforce, who played one of the most widely-known and best-beloved lesbians on television, is herself married--to a stallion!--and is a devoted mother of three.
Galeforce (Center) hugging her husband Seafoam, surrounded by their foals.
“Seafoam and I decided pretty early on,” Galeforce explained, “that we would keep our little family quiet. After all, Rainbow Dash was becoming so important to so many ponies that we decided we wouldn’t do anything that could have jeopardized her image. Both of us grew up around theater ponies, and so, we’re both Allies. If we could help out, even a little bit, by letting Rainbow be loud and proud, then that’s just what we had to do.”
Gale, like her childhood friend Clementine, had always dreamed of being a star. However, while Clem went off to be a screenwriter, Gale instead turned to the stage. She became a classically trained actress with a soft spot for Shakespony, but, outside of a short-but-memorable stint as Lady MacIntosh, never really found success.
By then, she was living with her long-term boyfriend Seafoam, and had actually just given birth to their first child. “Now that I had Boardwalk to take care of,” she said, “the two of us decided that it was a good time for me to step back from acting. But then—” she shook her head and smiled. “Barely two weeks later, I get a phone call from Clem. She has this part for me--a big part--in this thing she’s working on. And it was only going to be a two-part miniseries, so they wouldn’t need me for more than a month at the absolute outside.” She laughed. “A little extra money, working with a pony I already know and love--and only for a month? Why the hell not?”
Of course, as we already know, Friendship turned out to last a lot longer than just a month. Gale and Sea, who had been trying to make do with Sea’s meager salary from doing bit parts in commercials, were ecstatic to have the steady income--but attempting to work any job with a new foal to take care of is never easy. Seafoam took care of everything he could around the house, but Walker, of course, only wanted to spend time with Mommy. All the competing demands on Gale’s time led to her unfortunate habit of stealing naps on set whenever she could--which, in turn, led to Rainbow turning into a bit of a napper herself, after the cameras spotted Gale catching some shut-eye after an important scene.
In contrast to how hard Gale tried to keep her relationship status a secret from her fans, she was completely open with her co-stars. In fact, the little family almost grew up on set together. Gale started bringing Walker with her to work when he got old enough, and Sea was often around to lend a helping hoof whenever it was needed. But the biggest surprise was yet to come: after filming wrapped on season two, Gale and Sea actually got married on the Canterlot Wedding set--with all of the main cast as Gale’s bridesmaids, of course!
So Gale kept on being Rainbow, with Sea in the background being the all-around cheerleader, and Walker kept on getting underhoof--until partway through season six, when Gale suddenly realized that she was pregnant again.
"Caught us completely off-guard," she said. "Don't get me wrong, we love all our kids, but I was working so much that we weren't even considering having another foal yet. Especially since getting pregnant would have made things more complicated for Rainbow, y'know?"
She quickly told Clem, worried what this would mean for the character of Rainbow, and Clementine frantically started reworking their plans for season seven. In the meantime, Gale worked double-shifts, filming as many of her lines as she could ahead of time before she really started showing.
It was during this time that the cast started filming the episode “Flutter Brutter,” where the audience finally meets Fluttershy’s family, including her annoying college dropout brother. Before they could cast the character of Zephyr Breeze, though, Rosemary made a suggestion: why not give the part to Seafoam? He was already an actor, and he was on-set so often he was practically part of the cast already. Seafoam was, of course, ecstatic to get the chance to act alongside his wife. In fact, it was actually his suggestion that Zephyr have a massive, unrequited crush on Rainbow, which provided that extra little spark that made him so much more endearing. And the two of them had the chemistry to pull it off, too--though it was unexpectedly difficult for Gale to have to be so mean to her husband.
“I made it up to him after,” she assured us all. “Trust me: if I wasn’t already pregnant, I would absolutely have been after we were all done.”
It was hard work, but it turned out great: when she finally took her maternity leave, Gale had recorded so much footage that the editors were able to splice her, almost-seamlessly, into season seven. There were a few shots that needed to be re-recorded with a stunt-double or a CGI stand-in, but, for the most part, no one noticed anything had changed. The editors did their work so well that, even though Rainbow was missing from large chunks of the season, the show proceeded very nearly without a hiccup.
And it was worth it: Gale and Sea’s second foal, their daughter, was born happy and healthy about halfway through filming.
“We named her Rainbow,” Gale confided in us. “I mean, how could we not?”
* * *
“It was almost like working with a real-life Pinkie Pie.”
* * *
Family, of course, was one of the more frequent topics of discussion on the show--and Galeforce wasn’t the only one who brought her family onto the set.
“Speaking of family,” I said, “Sweetpea—”
“Yes!” she cried, pumping her hoof in the air, “It’s my turn!”
There was another round of laughter, and Sweetpea beamed.
“Absolutely,” I continued. “You didn’t think we would leave you out?”
“Nope,” she replied. “Just, y’know, waiting patiently… eagerly… waiting...”
I chuckled, then looked down at my notes. “Well, Sweetpea,” I began. “I wanted to talk to you about your family, too. I think we all know you’re married—”
“Not to Cheese Sandwich,” she replied with a roguish wink.
“Of course,” I said. “But you come from a whole family of entertainers, don’t you?”
Buttercup yelped and looked frantically around. Her sudden fright made everyone jump, and, after a moment, start laughing. Buttercup blushed, then smiled sheepishly.
“They’re not lurking in the wings too, are they?” she asked.
I shook my head. “Nope, not at all.”
Sweetpea gave me a look of exaggerated hurt. “You didn’t fly my sisters out?”
“Nah,” I said, “I didn’t want to have to keep figuring out which one was you.”
It really feels like Pinkie Pie has been everywhere on television since the end of Friendship--but that’s not entirely Sweetpea’s fault. Believe it or not, she is actually one of a set of identical triplets! Snow Pea was born first, Sweetpea came out four minutes later, and Snap Pea two minutes after that. By all accounts, they are about as close as any three ponies can be--though, at the same time, all three of them were dead-set, from the moment they took their first breaths, on one-upping each other.
“Snowy--she just goes by Snow, most of the time--well, she always wanted to be a fancy-schmancy ballet dancer. And Snappy was more into sports, though she wasn’t any good at them. So she went into sports announcing. Me?” She grinned. “I tried my hoof at comedy. Didn’t always pay the bills, but you got to hear your audience laugh and see their smiles. I didn’t have to wait for reviews to find out how good I did.”
“So how did your sisters react when they found out you got one of the major roles in Friendship?” I asked.
Sweetpea grinned evilly. “Ooh,” she cooed, “They were so mad—”
A family resemblance: Snow Pea (left) as Josephine in a recent production of War Horse, Sweetpea (Center) on the Sugarcube Corner set, and Snap Pea (right) in the commentator’s booth at Seabiscuit Arena.
Sweetpea’s natural energy and good cheer was exactly what the rest of the cast needed.In fact, her family background really helped her with her roles: she had picked up enough dancing tips from Snow to help her really clinch Pinkie’s various dance routines, and she was able to effortlessly narrate Ponyville’s Running of the Leaves by imitating Snappy. But her biggest influence was the attitude she showed towards her co-stars.
“Yeah, my sisters and I were at each other’s throats pretty much constantly,” she said. “I mean, there were three of us and only one bathroom. What else were we gonna do? But we also had each other’s backs, no matter what. Some nights, we would yell and scream and steal each other’s mane cream--but the next day, we’d hug and cry over a failed audition, or a colt--or a filly,” she added with a smile. “We never judged.”
Sweetpea brought that same enthusiasm to her work on Friendship, where her first priority was always her co-stars. “Anytime someone was having a hard time with their lines, or were frustrated with a bad take, I tried my hardest to help them feel okay.”
“It was almost like working with a real-life Pinkie Pie,” Rosemary added.
Sweetpea just giggled to herself.
“Though it wasn’t all fun and games,” Buttercup added.
Sweetpea winced. “Well, now that you mention it…”
One of the other benefits to having Sweetpea on the show was the versatility that came with having access to three identical ponies. Some of her wackier stunts were only possible, not because she could be in two places at once, but because there were actually two--or sometimes even three—of her.
However, no matter how easy filming might have been, having three overeager, hypercompetitive, completely identical mares running unsupervised around the set led to no small degree of chaos. Their rivalry tended to boil over into shouting arguments, prank wars, and even wrestling matches that would spill out over the entire set. And, worst of all: they’d cover for each other. If anyone managed to corner them, they’d either deny everything, or stall until the guilty party could sneak out the back door.
“Every time the three of them were on set,” Buttercup said with a shudder, “I was an absolute wreck!”
“But you gotta admit,” Galeforce said, “they kept things fun.”
“I still remember when one of my nieces asked me for everypony’s autograph for her birthday,” Clementine added. “I got Sweetpea to sign her card--only to realize that I had asked Snow Pea by accident. She didn’t even blink. Just signed the card as Pinkie Pie, warm wishes and everything.”
“Oh, we do that all the time,” Sweetpea said. “I’ve got Snappy’s signature down like you wouldn’t believe.”
* * *
“Friendship is Magic actually was magic.”
* * *
“I think we can all agree that Friendship was something of a unicorn, no pun intended,” I began. “Everything came together just right.”
Clementine held her head up high and grinned. The others all smiled and nodded, too.
“That said,” I continued, “HUB is trying to catch lightning in the bottle again. What are your feelings on the reboot--A New Generation?”
For the first time in almost an hour, the room went silent. Clementine bit her lip and looked away. Sweetpea gave a heavy sigh. Buttercup just looked down at the floor. Regina suddenly became very interested in a spot on one of her hooves. And Galeforce nervously straightened her mane.
I turned to Rosemary, who was looking thoughtful. “Any thoughts?” I asked her.
She nodded slowly, still thinking hard, then took a deep breath.
“I… well…” she sighed, then gestured vaguely. “It’s so hard to put it into words…”
“Take your time,” I said.
Rosemary thought for another moment, then wiped at one of her eyes.
“For me, at least…” she began slowly, “Friendship is Magic actually was magic.”
Regina nodded eagerly. “It saved my life,” she said.
“It changed mine,” Buttercup added.
“I practically raised my kids in Ponyville,” Galeforce spoke up.
“My sisters and I weren’t really able to do what we loved until Pinkie Pie became famous,” Sweetpea said.
“I was able to start directing after Friendship,” Clementine said.
“And would it be too cliché to say it made my dreams come true?” Rosemary asked.
“Not at all,” I replied, my voice hushed.
“I don’t know quite what’s going to happen in Equestria next,” Rosemary continued. “I mean, I suppose it’s a good thing they’re not just trying to recast us as other ponies. But I hope that, whatever the new cast can do, that it’s just as magical as Friendship--both for the audience, and—” she swallowed, suddenly tearing up “--and for the friends.”
The room was silent for a long moment. Finally, Rosemary swallowed, then looked around the room.
“Isn’t that right, girls?” she asked.
“Oh, just shut up, you egghead,” Galeforce said.
She stood up, walked around the table, and swept Rosemary into a hug.
Sweetpea squealed, then practically leapt onto the two of them. Clem came next, then Regina, and finally Buttercup--all of the joining in one last signature, Friendship-style group hug.
Friendship is… y’know.
And, just like that, it seemed like twenty years had never happened. Like these six mares were fillies again, celebrating after beating a dragon, or after solving an argument, or just for the sheer joy of being together.
And, for just a moment, I understood what I’ve heard every one of them say so very, very many times. I started to understand what they meant when they said those magic words--that Friendship is Magic. Ω
