Friendship is Card Games: Tell Your Tale, Season 2, Part 3 · 11:41am May 19th
It’s back to Maretime Bay to see what madness has developed since last I looked, and just how badly the continuity’s been snarled.
Oh boy…
First up is the short from before “The Blockywockys,” because Hasbro is under no obligation to line up neatly with my schedule.
We open with aerial smoothie delivery, and I find myself wondering just what those construction unicorns are working on.
Wow. Posey wasn’t just voluntarily interacting with the main cast (heck, with Izzy,) another protagonist made her day better. Mark your calendars, folks, this doesn’t happen often.
Replaying the footage before the crash, it does appear that Sunny came out of a turn focused on Hitch and believably could have missed the giant egg directly in front of her. Good choreography on the part of the animators.
Ah. I thought the egg was part of a festival float at first, but no, it’s just a random egg on a public thoroughfare. I’m a bit surprised Hitch didn’t try to clear it for the sake of traffic, but I can understand not wanting to disturb a potentially delicate creature.
I would not describe the massive, clearly patterned egg as “drab.” Certainly not “in need of some glam.” It’s clear that the inner workings of Pipp’s mind are an enigma to me; I just wonder if the writers have any better ideas about her.
I do appreciate Izzy’s little glitter assistants. As for Sunny’s dad jokes… Yeah, Posey’s in the right in this case.
Also, the “investigator” baton has apparently passed from Sunny to Zipp to Misty. Only enough curiosity for one pony at a time in this setting, I suppose. :applejackbemused: Also, Misty has understandably little experience in moderating public reactions.
Oh hey, they remembered that Eggmund Bunny exists. Good to see some semblance of continuity.
Yes, Hitch, clearly you have the time and energy to take care of another mysterious hatchling not seen in centuries on top of Sparky. (Also, I suppose the construction unicorns were fixing the pavement after earth ponies kept busting it willy-nilly.)
… 
They seriously didn’t notice their cutie marks worked into the egg’s design. I feel like this ties back to my hypothesis from “The Return of Harmony,” where pony color vision actually isn’t very good, especially for picking up subtle differences in hues. Hence not noticing when a friend’s been desaturated, or seeing a highly detailed giant egg as a drab blur. (Also hence the pony preference for popping pastels.)
Ah, the sections do rotate. I suspected as much.
Hmm. With the causally confused question of whether the egg knew Hitch would go up top, this definitely seems like an artifact of Harmony. To say nothing of Pipp managing to center an entire design around one of her switches. We may be edging into the question of “They were always there, but were they always there five minutes ago?” That said, I did see signs of Sunny’s cutie mark early on.
Oh thank goodness, they didn’t go with Sunny’s entire magic rhyme. I don’t know who thought those were a good idea, but I assume they were high up the chain of command.
Damn it, Posey…
Also, that is a suspiciously Celestia-colored bird.
And this was from Eggmund? I have so many questions, but at this point, it’s clear that the writing staff isn’t asking any beyond “What else can we do to fill five minutes?” As I’ve said in the past, it’s clear that this world was once that of Pony Life. The ocean should start turning pink any day now.
… Why is the unicorn casting through her hooves!? I appreciate somepony trying to rediscover the lost magical arts, but this is just baffling.
Ah, the perils of magical experimentation.
I genuinely appreciate the put-upon attitude of the fairy guide. It’s nice to have someone else be aggravated by this nonsense. Plus, I’m pretty sure this is the consciousness of the spellbook, which has some fascinating implications.
Six-pointed stars of Magic in the sky. I’m sure it’s nothing.
It’s certainly interesting to see who got assigned what roles: Sunny’s a spellcaster of some kind, Izzy’s a seapony hybrid, Misty is… well, I can’t tell if she’s meant to be the White Rabbit of Wonderland or a dancer in the RPG sense of “exotic performer who cheeses the action economy.” Zipp is either Little Red Riding Hood or a rogue. Pipp appears to be going for an Ice Queen motif. Hitch may be a frog prince by way of a dragon. Sparky is clearly a knight. Bizarre mix of fairy tales and D&D, and I’m not sure how much of the latter I’m bringing in through preconceived notions.
That said, I do appreciate the angry gingerbread cottage.
Poor Hitch. The only rhythm in that stallion’s soul is a patrol route.
Ah yes, it’s very difficult to fight the final boss when S&P won’t let you actually attack him rather than simply try to subdue or distract him. Though befriending is always an option.
Oh heck. Even after they tried to downplay Misty’s connection to the concept of empathy, she really does have Sunset Shimmer’s abilities.
“Oh. You’re still alive.”
One could read that in several ways. Given that the guide opened with “Bad luck, my brave ponies,” death may just be a matter of “You hit zero hit points, you’re out of the game” here. But it might not.
So… how does Zantorp feel about the avatar of the spellbook? Because the implication here was that she sent the group to kill him, and also he was feeling sincerely isolated until now, implying she hasn’t made an effort to socialize with him. Plus the question of whether he even… well, exists outside of the quest. Folks have compared him to Gummigoo from the most recent episode of The Amazing Digital Circus, and without getting into spoilers there, I can see why.
And now, as previously alluded to, now we get into the deep continuity confusion.
Ooh. I do appreciate getting to see more of the Zephyr Heights royal line. I remain convinced that they descended from Cozy Glow. I also appreciate Zipp desperate to find some precedent for her own desire to break from royal tradition… though given the reunification of the tribes, she does have a viable excuse should she truly need one.
Huh. Sunny having a sizable foalhood memory gap is certainly interesting. That has some traumatic implications, to say nothing of the confirmation that her mother is deceased. (At least, as far as she knows.)
Okay, at this point the Brighthouse isn’t just violating the conventional behavior of time and space, but actively spiting those conventions. Truly a worthy successor to Namepending Castle.
And here’s the big problem: Sunny having both her cutie mark and the rainbow stripes in her mane at a very young age, thus messing with established continuity from both the movie and Make Your Mark. It’s not that big a deal in the grand scheme of things, but it’s still frustrating. Unless holographic alicorns also retroactively alter their baby photos…
“Whoa. What’s… happening?”
“I don’t know!”
How to summarize Tell Your Tale in six words.
I was not expecting two shorts where ponies got absorbed into books, much less two consecutive ones.
Huh. Or, alternatively, the streaks in Sunny’s mane weren’t there originally, but are present in this “Pensieve at home” situation. (Also, how did she get up that tree in the first place?)
Zipp has the right idea. She doesn’t really have any option other than going along with this latest nonsense, and neither do I.
Ah yes, the Mane Six figurines. And the awkward question of how much it cost to acknowledge their existence. This is why you hold onto IP rights if you’re going to make a continuation of the previous instance of the franchise.
“I’ll be back before you know it.”
And thus her fate was sealed.
So, a mysterious expedition in the hopes of restoring magic. I do hope this actually goes somewhere, unlike some of the other mysteries of the Starscouts. (Remember that heirloom that was part of a tapestry that foretold Sunny and company?)
Hmm. An alicorn altering the stars. Usually Sunny has Twilight parallels, but now I’m wondering how Luna would feel about her.
Sunny’s mom is only credited as… “Sunny’s Mom.” More than a little disappointing.
As a side note, I’ve seen at least one bit of speculation that, going by her color scheme, Sunny’s mom was either a descendant of Flurry Heart or Cadence herself in disguise. It would explain how she knew at least some of the story of Old Equestria’s downfall.
I thought I already did Rainbow Factory…
Oh dear. More of a rainbow factory recall. That’s preying on unicorn magic, oddly enough. This is what happens when they could only afford a single aura effect for everypony.
Ah, pegasus fables of half-forgotten weather factories. This actually works quite well… though the name could use some work.
I do appreciate how ponies at least acknowledge the reckless abandon with which others go diving headfirst into the poorly established unknown.
Oh good, everypony can walk on these clouds. I’m just going to chalk that up to sheer magical density.
There is the question of why a hidden staircase would be necessary when presumably everypony involved could fly. I’d blame it on narrative drift over generations of flightless pegasi, but when it actually exists… Well, I suppose there needs to be surface for the rainbow machine to rest on.
Uh, guys, don’t get so caught up in the wondrous cloudscape that you forget why you came here in the first place.
Okay, I do appreciate the gravity-defying Möbius staircase
That wasn’t an answer, Zipp, that was a crowbarred-in mantra.
Out of all the things I thought I might see today, I was not expecting even an incidental reference to the rainbow-vomiting gnomes of Gravity Falls.
… It drained the rainbows out of food coloring? Seriously?
I can admit that the rainbow surfing back to the surface is a cool visual, but it says something when it feels like they were stretching for time in a five minute short. Still, I do like seeing a still-functional weather manufacturing device. Helps support the idea that many of the natural processes that were on manual override in the Twilit Era have been automated.
Overall, it’s sadly what I’ve come to expect from Tell Your Tale: Ninety percent empty flash and nonsense with the occasional sprinkle of character or plot development. There are fascinating elements to these shorts, yes, but it’s clear that the writers have long since abandoned any effort or pretense of putting them together into a coherent world. Things just happen to and around the characters and they’re dragged along for the ride, as is the viewer.
Still, at least all that stuff and nonsense makes for great card fodder:
Puzzle Egg 1W
Artifact
T, Tap an untapped creature you control for each quest counter on Puzzle Egg: Create a Food token. Put a quest counter on Puzzle Egg. Then if there are three or more quest counters on Puzzle Egg, untap and transform it. (A Food token is an artifact with “2, T, Sacrifice this artifact: You gain 3 life.”)
Chocogenic Sunbird
(W) Creature — Bird
Flying, lifelink
Chocogenic Sunbird’s power and toughness are each equal to the number of tokens you control.
Whenever Chocogenic Sunbird attacks, create a Food token.
Signs of Celestia’s presence are unmistakable.
*/*
Rainbow Rider 1W
Creature — Pony Scout
Rainbow Rider has flying as long as you control a multicolored permanent.
Rainbow Rider has double strike, vigilance, and lifelink as long as there are five colors among permanents you control.
Many new magical discoveries come from not knowing they’re impossible.
2/2
Warren Wave 3W
Creature — Rabbit
Warren Wave enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it for each other creature you control.
When Warren Wave dies, create a number of 1/1 white Rabbit creature tokens equal to its power.
Innocent as lambs, fecund as goblins.
1/1
Royal Vestige 4W
Creature — Pegasus Spirit Noble
Flying
When Royal Vestige enters the battlefield, you become the monarch.
Disturb 1WW (You may cast this spell from your graveyard transformed for its disturb cost.)
“I see standards have slipped.”
3/3
Royal Lineage
(W) Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature has flying.
At the beginning of your end step, if you’re the monarch, put a +1/+1 counter on enchanted creature.
If Royal Lineage would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, exile it instead.
Questopia Guide 2U
Creature — Pony Faerie Advisor
Flying
Adventure spells you cast and spells you cast from exile can’t be countered.
“Welcome to a world of wonder, magic, and incredibly violent death. Listen to me and you might live to see some of it.”
2/2
Cordoned Off 3U
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant artifact or creature
Shroud (A permanent with shroud can’t be the target of spells or abilities.)
When Cordoned Off enters the battlefield, tap enchanted permanent.
Enchanted permanent loses all abilities, has shroud, and doesn’t untap during its controller’s untap step.
Chromatic Vortex 3UU
Sorcery
Choose one —
• Return each nonland permanent that’s one or fewer colors to its owner’s hand.
• Return all multicolored permanents to their owners’ hands.
Many ancient pegasus weather devices still function… and sometimes malfunction.
Puzzle Floor Trap 4U
Instant — Trap
If there are three or more different powers among attacking creatures, you may pay 1U rather than pay this spell’s mana cost.
Return all attacking creatures to their owner’s hand.
“There was a trap?”
—Princess Pipp Petals
Expedition Mishap 1B
Instant
Target creature gets -3/-3 until end of turn. If that creature explored this turn, destroy it.
As the tribes turned inward, the rest of the world lay forgotten. Few who ventured out into the wilderness returned.
Rainbow Sickness 2B
Enchantment
Whenever an opponent casts a multicolored spell, that player loses 1 life for each of that spell’s colors.
“Okay, got it. Rainbows aren’t a good ingredient for anything that gets near the eyes or mouth. See? We’re learning!”
—Princess Pipp Petals
Gingerbomination 3BB
Creature — Horror
Menace
Whenever you gain life, put a +1/+1 counter on Gingerbomination.
Originally created for Discord’s LARP sessions, Questopia has since developed into a different surreal nightmare than what he’d intended.
5/4
Convenient Find 5B
Sorcery
Undaunted (This spell costs 1 less to cast for each opponent.)
Search your library for a card, put it into your hand, then shuffle.
As magic builds, the forces of Harmony can rarely leave well enough alone.
Prism Fracture 1R
Sorcery
Spree (Choose one or more additional costs.)
+1 — Prism Fracture deals 3 damage to each colorless creature.
+2 — Prism Fracture deals 3 damage to each monocolored creature.
+1 — Prism Fracture deals 3 damage to each multicolored creature.
Glittering Echoes 2R
Enchantment
When Glittering Echoes enters the battlefield, proliferate. (Choose any number of permanents and/or players, then give each another counter of each kind already there.)
1R, Remove two counters from a creature you control: Create a token that’s a copy of that creature, except it has haste. Sacrifice the token at the beginning of the next end step.
Zantorp the Furious 2RR
Legendary Creature — Dragon
Alicorn (This card is also a Pony Pegasus Unicorn.)
Flying, trample
Tap three untapped Ponies, Pegasi, and/or Unicorns you control: Gain control of Zantorp. Any player may activate this ability but only during their turn.
4/4
Apocalyptic Fire Hawk 5R
Creature — Elemental Bird
Flying, haste
When Apocalyptic Fire Hawk enters the battlefield, if it was cast, each player discards their hand, then draws four cards.
Whenever Apocalyptic Fire Hawk attacks, it gets +1/+0 until end of turn for each card in defending player’s hand.
0/4
Extract from Memory 1G
Sorcery
Mill three cards, then return a permanent card from your graveyard to your hand.
Sunny wasn’t sure what was stranger, exploring the depths of her own past or coming back with a souvenir.
Field Hippologist 1G
Creature — Pony Scout
Whenever a historic permanent you control is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, draw a card. This ability triggers only once each turn. (Artifacts, legendaries, and Sagas are historic.)
“We may have forgotten our past. The land hasn’t.”
1/3
Document Nibbler 2G
Creature — Rabbit
When Document Nibbler enters the battlefield, choose one —
• Destroy target artifact.
• Destroy target enchantment.
• Mill three cards.
Baby bunnies need at least as much supervision as anything else.
2/1
Tributary Scout 3G
Creature — Unicorn Merfolk Scout
When Tributary Scout enters the battlefield, it explores for each player who controls an Island. (To have it explore, reveal the top card of your library. Put that card into your hand if it’s a land. Otherwise, put a +1/+1 counter on that creature, then put the card back or put it into your graveyard.)
2/2
Puzzle’s Linchpin 2
Artifact — Clue
When Puzzle’s Linchpin enters the battlefield, scry 2.
2, Sacrifice Puzzle’s Linchpin: Draw a card. The next spell you cast this turn has cascade. (When you cast that spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom of your library in a random order.)
Bearers’ Effigies 3
Artifact
T: Add one mana of any color.
Whenever you cast a spell, if WUBRG was spent to cast it, untap and transform Bearers’ Effigies.
Their deeds and names faded with time, but were never truly forgotten.
Memory of Harmony
Creature — Spirit
Memory of Harmony is all colors.
Alicorn
Flying, first strike, menace, hexproof
The first spell you cast each turn that’s one or more colors costs WUBRG less to cast. This effect reduces only the amount of colored mana you pay.
4/4
Stellar Memorial 2B(gw)
Enchantment
You may have Stellar Memorial enter the battlefield as a copy of any creature card in a graveyard, except it’s an enchantment. (It has the creature’s abilities but isn’t a creature.)
Luna’s power lies dormant, waiting for worthy uses.
Shatterwake Dragon 3BR
Creature — Dragon
Flying, haste
Whenever Shatterwake Dragon attacks, each player sacrifices a permanent.
A dragon always lives in a world of cardboard. Questopia just makes it literal.
4/3
Hasbro doesn't care for a coherent world or a solidly written story, it just wants toy sales.
Apparently, the writers don't care that much about such things either (either that, or time-crunch is a factor we're missing here. I am open to possibilities).
The only thing I remember from this short over two months on is how TYT's release schedule is so outta whack that this was posted a month ahead of the holiday it's meant to tie in with. I won't forgo the possibility that was intentional, so it would be in enough of the compilations by actual Easter, but it's still weird. Not as weird as how much the short is just making anything up for a plot without concern for what it'll mean beyond this short, but hey, that's par for the course for TYT by now.
I did enjoy the snakiness of the fairy guide, it was in a different register than G5 normally gets to employ for such characters. Otherwise, just another "throw adventure schtick at the wall" short that really only has the visual creativity of D&D'ing the characters up, and even then, there's little cohesion to the outfits or roles the characters have. Some decent-ish action animation in here, even if the art style and music mean it doesn't have any real resonance.
This is like that short from Season One where they uncover some sort of magical blanket Argyle left behind for Sunny and a video-recorded message: the writers are so desperate to do something in the past to stave off their boredom with the usual fluff, despite the webseries' format being ill-suited to carrying it off.
Well, there being beholden to MYM meant they couldn't do anything substantial, while here, it's far too late into the Gen for inserting Sunny's mom to feel like anything but a grab for viewer attention. Atypically, nothing really happens beyond the implications of "Sunny's mom goes on a quest and doesn't return". This being the only G5 show, they probably will come back to this. It just won't be satisfying at all.
And baby Sunny having her old mane style… either Hasbro forced that for current branding, or the artists don't care enough to do that and no one in QA felt arsed correcting them.
I actually felt this one captured some childlike whimsy along the way, and the pop song used as backing for the montage didn't ruin it or anything either. Pretty much all flash with little substance as usual, of course – nowhere is this more obvious that the scene inside the tornado which begs comparisons to "Hurricane Fluttershy" one of the franchise's best pieces of media ever, with how rote the character work here is – but even as it was stretching for time, I wasn't as bored stiff.
But yeah, especially with the fortnightly release schedule, that TYT is sinking further and further into its Mad Libs phase is really making it feel more and more like Pony Life. I still prefer it to that show, but less and less with time.
"The Cheat's behind the box... he's not even really behind it, he's barely obscured by the... THE CHEAT'S BEHIND THE BOX!!"
Questopia Guide seems like it'd be good in a Madness deck.
Stupid Complicated Game Alert: Unlike some other asterisk-toughness creatures, Chocogenic Sunbird can hit 0 if you run out of tokens. This kills it as a state-based action, so make sure you keep it fed.
Inside Baseball Alert: Obviously, a Merfolk deck will have Islands in it. Less obviously, it may be able to pay for Tributary Scout because of Ixalan.
Stupid Complicated Game Alert: I'm still a little bit angry at the continued existence of "This effect reduces only the amount of colored mana you pay" due to how there are more cards with it than the supposed default case. This anger is not actually directed at FoME, but at Khalni Hydra for being the card where it might conceivably matter but probably never has and never will. Even if it did save you mana, it would still be the epitome of win-more!
5781694
(And she's played O&O in canon!)
Anyone who has ever played D&D knows why this makes sense.
Yeah, it's been bugging me ever since I saw this pic. Looks like Hasbro run out of fucks at this point.
This could be said of so many things!
5781686
You can't go wrong betting on sheer incompetence. I once worked on a Disney property that had amazing levels of pixel-f#@ing interference, but was given a thumbs-up when it featured a big splash page of Chip and Dale that omitted their chipmunk back stripes.
5781791
I have encountered exactly this situation of the property owner of the licensed IP fussing over tiny details and missing bigger ones. So I fully believe it would happen, there and possibly here too.
Turning ponies into Magic cards continues to be Very Cool.
Did they
say what happened to her mother?
5782064
Of course not, that would tell us something definite about the setting and the characters. No, she's just vaguely vanished.
(Notwithstanding the poor way the reveal was handled, I do like the design the gave to Mommy Starscout.)
5782208
I remember early on being impressed and amused early on that a series aimed at the very, very young audience cheerfully reminded us that Sunny's dad is hella dead over and over.
5782208 5782234
The exact words are:
And she says this while looking at the photo of her and Argyle. It doesn't seem like they ever found the body, but signs point to dead unless they're setting up for one heck of a Della Duck moment.
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Seems on brand with how they handle Argyle. Though Sunny being unable to remember her own mother is heartbreaking.