Friendship is Card Games: MLP 40th Anniversary Special · 11:56am Aug 20th, 2023
This should certainly be interesting. I’m not entirely sure what to expect from this part of My Little Pony’s ruby jubilee (along with the Bridlewoodstock special and… well, Ruby Jubilee,) but there’s certainly a lot to take in. Let’s begin.
Friendship is Forever
I appreciate the G4-esque background on the first page. After all, Ponyville is in trouble. Even if this isn't the G4 clip show. 
Very nice work with different camera angles on the toys to convey different emotions. Reminiscent of the statue of Ganesh in Digger, a similarly expressive inanimate object.
But yes, we open on Earth in 1984, with four little girls and half a dozen plastic ponies. Specifically the ones seen on the cover. (It’s a… striking visual style, I know. Especially on the faces.)
Interesting to see that Julie has two mothers in the mid-80s. That feels quite progressive for the time.
Four friends playing together in the 80s. The girls are a little younger, but I’m still getting Stranger Things vibes. Though I doubt they’ll encounter a boy with a number for a name who escaped from a Hasbro testing facility after making contact with an extradimensional eldritch horror they’ll codename “Lord Tirac.” Doesn’t seem like that kind of comic.
Ah, and their parents have leased them actual ponies for the summer. Lovely stuff, truly.
Oh. The last summer before middle school. Yeah, this is can be a big transition, especially when the friend group is at the mercy of indifferent class assignments.
Ah. And because it’s the 80s, we simply must have a wheeling, dealing sleazy businessman for an antagonist. Probably keeps at least four ounces of cocaine in that desk at all times.
Listening in on a landline call by picking up another receiver. I do appreciate time-appropriate plot developments.
Heh. Grogar Developments. Just to drive home how evil this exchange really is, on top of the “tear down the beloved small-town business for a soulless corporate husk” plot. In this case, tearing down the barn and pasture to build a mall. Again, very 80s.
And we go from trying to save an imaginary world to saving a very real barn. This should be interesting… but those faces are still distressing.
Nice touch with the ominous thunderclouds over the new school. I always appreciate a good bit of drama-sensitive weather.
Heh. Friendship collateral. They’ll have to come back to collect their lent ponies. (And one could read an Elements of Harmony analogue in giving a single person six shared artifacts to bear.)
… Ah. Or not. And the Asian girl’s parents are looming over her to get good grades.
And the specific developer from Grogar Developments? Hugh Mann. Now there’s a name I can trust!
And our heroine Julie decides to stop waiting from her friends and… sneaks off into the night to a barn far enough away that a parent usually drives the girls there. Where she finds a magic book in a hay bale, as her dreams foretold. At which point she recites a Latin incantation to bring the pony toys to life. As one does.
Okay, so maybe there’s a little Stranger Things in here.
Oh. This isn’t a matter of bringing toys to life. This is restoring ponies to their “real forms.” I have many questions and concerns.
“We can choose to come over from our home, Equestria, to keep an eye on the humans who need us most.”
Okay, so it’s a bit of a Barbieland situation.
Alas, the other girls are still too busy. I hope this isn’t a “Susan discovering makeup and being banished from Narnia” situation. Also, apparently this is a school day and Julie’s just… slept in this barn. All night. A+ parenting from her moms.
And an ominous statement from off-panel as the background shifts to blood red. I’m sure it’s fine.
The other three girls meet at recess, realize Julie’s missing despite her never skipping school, and resolve to find what happened to her… riding their bikes to the barn.
This is Stranger Things. Though at least Julie’s only been tied to a chair and had her mouth taped shut rather than getting shunted into the Upside-Down with eggs laid down her throat.
And now the land developer stalks in, Jojo-posing and surrounded by a sickly green aura, monologuing about ho he planted that spellbook as part of a plan to lure the ponies here and open a gateway between this world and Equestria, where the ponies banished him… and where he also planned on razing a structure to replace it with a shopping mall. (In this case, the ponies’ castle.)
“But really… why stop there? Why stop there when I could use my powers to create… two shopping malls!?”
I can’t tell if this is hilarious or one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen. Possibly both.
Hugh Mann tries to talk the girls into ordering the ponies to open the gate, as their “true owners.” Of course, they see themselves as the ponies’ friends, and they’re willing to fight for those friends.
Cut to a two-page spread of the girls astride their ponies and Hugh and his henchmen (hench-Manns?) charging at one another. I swear I am not making this up.
Hugh takes a hoof to the face, the girls reaffirm their friendship with themselves and their ponies, and Hugh gets sealed within his own spellbook a la Myst.
Oh, it was a dream. I can’t tell if I’m more relieved or disappointed.
The good news is that the barn actually did pull out of the development deal, and Julie’s friends have come to visit. The comic closes on a sleepover… and the plastic Snuzzle smiling. As in visibly shifting her expression. Well then.
Tales of Dream Valley
Ah, Maretime Bay. And an art style that’s easier to look at.
Izzy getting a headache from passing her magical load limit is an interesting detail. I’m reminded of the hazards of telekinesis on the Discworld, where Newton’s Third Law means that trying to lift something with your mind presses down on your brain with equal force.
How exactly does a cart-pulling competition work? Distance? Weight? Speed? Some combination thereof?
Ah, rare display of male bravado from Hitch in refusing help… that the mares know about.
Yeah, I can see a box full of books being a real struggle to lift. Paper is surprisingly dense in bulk. Also, good to see Argyle’s research wasn’t completely lost during the Sprouticus Maximus incident.
The idea of Fillydelphia being “a mythical ancient city” is equal parts fascinating and sad. Doubly so for such a prominent non-pony location as Yakyakistan.
Also, really wish they hadn’t acknowledged Dragon Town.
And among the notes on the Twilit Era is something far older and dustier, “Tales of Dream Valley.” Which may or may not be a physically extant book in our world. I feel a deep kinship with Hitch, Sunny, and Izzy as they try to puzzle out the world behind a story that was never meant to be that deep. Especially Sunny’s speculation on their culture.
Apparently the G5 voice cast did a live reading of this comic at EFNW. (I missed that one myself, but EileenSaysHi was there.) "Tales of Dream Valley" was read by a disgusted, heavily sarcastic Opaline.
Adjusting her interpretation as she reads, citing archetypes, voicing her frustration as new data comes to light that invalidates her old theories… Yeah, Sunny’s really capturing the pony analysis experience.
Results are inconclusive; the ponies resolve to go talk to Zipp and Pipp and cross-reference the Zephyr Heights royal library as the story concludes. The last panel encourages “each new generation to make its mark… and brush beautiful, long, shiny hair.” I do wish I'd been able to hear Athena Karkanis's take on that.
Bonnie
We cut back to Earth—though still with a more solid art style—as the titular young Bonnie watches G5 ponies on a TV… and a laptop open to YouTube… and a tablet. Truly a child of the times.
Ah. She’s actually doing a wiki dive on the laptop. The tablet has pony comics. Her phone is also involved, for an ongoing conversation with a friend who isn’t actually her friend right now, but who is also watching ponies.
This girl is either going places or will be terminally online by the time she’s fourteen.
A timely lightning strike knocks out the power just as the batteries on all her other devices die. Fortunately, her aunt still has her ponies in the attic. I do appreciate Bonnie insisting that G1 Applejack has too many apples in her cutie mark, to say nothing of the missing hat.
Aunt Vicki looks for her G1 Twilight, but remembers how she gave it to her best friend when she was Bonnie’s age as an apology for trying to force her out of her life because said best friend had a slumber party with two other girls without inviting her. Fortunately, they were able to talk it out, expand their social circle, and learn that friendship isn’t conserved.
It turns out that’s the crux of Bonnie’s own argument. As she wishes she could charge her phone to call her friend an apologize, Vicki unveils a landline.
“Whoa! Ancient!”
Don’t rub it in, kid.
After the storm, Vicki lets that friend know how cool her niece thinks their ponies are. Said friend responds with a picture of her holding Twilight… and utter disgust when it turns out the ponies are forty years old.
“I promise to be your best friend forever if you promise not to say how old that makes us.”
“Ha! Deal.”
[G1-style Celestia emoji]
And so the volume closes, celebrating countless memories old and new. My older sister had ponies as a kid, so they’ve been a familiar presence as far back as I can remember. (I did always appreciate the twinkle-eyed ones.) In any case, let’s see what I can do with much more pony-adjacent material than my usual:
Low Battery 2W
Instant
Tap all artifacts. Put a stun counter on each artifact you don’t control. (If a permanent with a stun counter would become untapped, remove one from it instead.)
No power source is truly infinite.
Dragon Town Sunrise 3W
Instant
As an additional cost to cast this spell, you may reveal a Dragon card from your hand.
Creatures you control get +2/+1 until end of turn. Untap those creatures if you revealed a Dragon card or controlled a Dragon as you cast this spell.
It’s always sunny in Fillydelphia.
Banish the Vile 4W
Sorcery
This spell costs 2 less to cast if it targets a black or red creature.
Exile target creature.
Solving problems by throwing them into other planes long predates Star Swirl.
Compiled Sources 4W
Sorcery — Lesson
Each player draws a card. Then each player with fewer cards in hand than the player with the most cards in hand draws cards equal to the difference.
Knowledge one tribe had lost was often found in the others’ libraries.
Weighty Matter U
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
When Weighty Matter enters the battlefield, tap enchanted creature.
Enchanted creature doesn’t untap during its controller’s untap step unless that player pays X, where X is the greatest mana value among permanents they control.
Wiki Dive 2UU
Enchantment
You may look at the top card of your library any time.
You may cast spells from the top of your library if they share a card type with the last spell you cast this turn.
All information is connected one way or another.
Surrounded by Screens 3U
Sorcery
Draw a card for each nontoken artifact you control.
Cycling 2 (2, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
One generation’s unthinkable splendor is another’s average day.
Dream Valley Seapony 4UU
Creature — Pony Merfolk
When Dream Valley Seapony enters the battlefield, tap all nonblue creatures.
Suspend 4—U (Rather than cast this card from your hand, you may pay U and exile it with four time counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter. When the last is removed, cast it without paying its mana cost. It has haste.)
3/3
Grimoire of Awakening 1B
Artifact
4, T: Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield. Target opponent gains control of Grimoire of Awakening. Activate only as a sorcery.
A book wants to be read, ideally by as many people as possible.
Servant of Grogar 2B
Creature — Human Warlock
Bargain (You may sacrifice an artifact, enchantment, or token as you cast this spell.)
Deathtouch
When Servant of Grogar enters the battlefield, if it was bargained, each opponent sacrifices a creature.
2/3
Doomsayers’ Consensus 2BB
Sorcery
Council’s dilemma — Starting with you, each player votes for plague or peril. Each player sacrifices all creatures they control with toughness less than or equal to the number of plague votes, then sacrifices a creature for each peril vote.
The world ending is a matter of how, not if.
Haul from the Basement XBB
Sorcery
Convoke (Your creatures can help cast this spell. Each creature you tap while casting this spell pays for 1 or one mana of that creature’s color.)
Return target creature or planeswalker card with mana value X from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Practical Experience 1R
Sorcery
Up to two target creatures can’t block this turn.
Learn. (You may reveal a Lesson card you own from outside the game and put it into your hand, or discard a card to draw a card.)
Some things can’t be learned in a lecture, and there’s only so much time in the day.
Dramatic Thunderbolt 2R
Instant
Dramatic Thunderbolt deals X damage to target creature or planeswalker, where X is 3 plus the greatest number of lore counters on a Saga you control.
Every story deserves an unforgettable climax.
Ponyland Gymkhana 2R
Sorcery
For each opponent, create a 1/1 red Pony creature token with haste and melee. Exile those tokens at the beginning of the next end step. (Whenever a creature with melee attacks, it gets +1/+1 for each opponent you attacked this combat.)
Herds the world over gathered to race.
For Sale 2R
Sorcery
Destroy target land. Its controller creates two Treasure tokens. (They’re artifacts with “T, Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color.”)
“Sorry I sold your barn. Here’s an expense account.”
Epic Showdown G
Sorcery
Replicate 1G (When you cast this spell, copy it for each time you paid its replicate cost. You may choose new targets for the copies.)
Target creature you control fights target creature you don’t control.
Some problems can’t be solved with hugs.
Wandering Herbalist 1G
Creature — Pony Nomad Druid
T: Add G. When you spend this mana to cast a Pony spell, you gain 2 life.
Earth pony magic was practiced long before finding the bond between soil and seed.
1/1
Riding Pony 1G
Creature — Horse Pony
3G, T: Target creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn. This ability costs 2 less to activate if it targets a Human.
“I try not to think about that.”
—Princess Twilight Sparkle
2/2
Yakyakistani Vestige 2G
Snow Creature — Ox Spirit
When Yakyakistani Vestige dies, search your library for a snow land card with a basic land type, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle.
Amid the northern winds lie the bellows of those who smashed death itself.
4/1
Equestrian Effigy 3
Artifact
When Equestrian Effigy enters the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on each artifact you control named Equestrian Effigy.
T: Add one mana of any color.
3: Equestrian Effigy becomes a 2/2 Pony artifact creature until end of turn.
Ponies are always strongest together.
Daring Dreamer RW
Creature — Human Citizen
When Daring Dreamer enters the battlefield, create a Young Hero Role token attached to it. (Enchanted creature has “Whenever this creature attacks, if its toughness is 3 or less, put a +1/+1 counter on it.” If you put another Role on it later, put this one into the graveyard.)
2/1
Zebrat Ancestor 1WB
Creature — Zebra Spirit
Lifelink, deathtouch
Disturb 2WB (You may cast this card from your graveyard transformed for its disturb cost.)
“The land remembers us, child. That is what matters.”
2/2
Ancestral Stripes
(WB) Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature has lifelink and deathtouch.
If Ancestral Stripes would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, exile it instead.
“Carry these marks, so that you may as well.”
Generational Legacy 1BGU
Enchantment
Whenever a creature you control dies, you may reveal a creature card that shares a creature type with it from your hand. If you do, put that card onto the battlefield as a copy of that creature.
“Apples go way back.”
—Applejack, Bearer of Honesty
Asset Capitalization 2BR
Enchantment — Aura Curse
Enchant opponent
At the beginning of enchanted player’s end step, that player sacrifices a noncreature, nontoken permanent and creates a Treasure token.
Eyes of gold can see nothing else.
Hugh Mann, Industrialist 3BR
Legendary Creature — Human Warlock
Lifelink, menace
Sacrifice a nontoken permanent: Create a Treasure token. Exile the top card of your library. You may play that card this turn. Any player may activate this ability.
Whenever an opponent sacrifices a Treasure, Hugh Mann deals 1 damage to that player.
4/4
Strip Mall
Land
T: Add C.
1, T, Sacrifice Strip Mall: Destroy target nonbasic land. You and that land’s controller each create a Treasure token.
Everything you want, nothing you need.
I'm… not sure what to make of that first one.
That issue was a mixed bag to be sure. Read it right when it came out and didn't leave much impression on me apparently as I struggled to remember what happened while reading your review. Maybe I was trying to forget that art style in the first story and just wiped the whole thing from my memory!
Wonder if there's a recording of that cast reading? If like to hear that. Have to dig around and see.