Friendship is Card Games: Friendship Games Promo Shorts · 1:09pm Jan 17th, 2016
Hello all. It’s time for the penultimate pre-Season 6 card blog, and since I already did a few cards for the Rainbow Rocks followup music videos, that means the bottom of the barrel consists of the Friendship Games shorts. As with last week, links have been provided for your convenience.
Ah yes, the short that gave me exactly what I needed to make Oversaturation work: scientific Sunset and an implausibly well-equipped science lab.
Seriously, assuming that equipment is Canterlot High property, the school must have a budget most can only dream of. A properly if not lavishly funded educational system? Yeah, that world clearly isn’t our Earth.
(And if it isn’t school property, that raises further questions. Did Sunset make millions through some illicit means before the Fall Formal? Did she find an application for Pinkie’s prop magic? Did she get the Diamond Dudes haul all of it in?)
I do like how Twilight and Sunset have different preferred learning styles. It’s nice to see the differences between the two, and it ties in well with Friendship Games. Studying and waiting for someone else to fix the problem didn’t work for Sunset. She had to go out there, get her appendages dirty, and figure it out for herself. That’s how her mind works.
I also appreciate that someone is finally trying to figure out what in the name of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is going on with the humans’ magic.
I have to wonder how many times Sunset accidentally used an equine anatomy term while she was still the queen bitch of Canterlot High. I can only imagine what Snips and Snails might have thought, to say nothing of Flash Sentry. I suppose the habit may have reappeared after she transformed, but this is a much more amusing mental image.
Chemistry is my weakest science, but even I know two lines shouldn’t be coming out of a hydroxide group.
For all I said about CHS’s incredible budget, even they seem to appreciate the scientific value of the common colander.
I hold by my hypothesis that the equipment might be able to do whatever Sunset was expecting it to if it weren’t for the initial surge of energy overwhelming the sensors. And, frequently, Sunset herself.
Granted, I have no idea what Sunset is expecting to get from these tests. Still, if human Twilight’s efforts are any indication, science and magic are compatible, and magical energy has properties similar to electromagnetism. It’d certainly explain all of the glowing, and possibly even the levitation.
I hope that Sunset repeated Rarity’s tests after stepping clear of the wires. Twilight has given me little regard for the scientific capacity of Celestia’s students (cf. “Feeling Pinkie Keen,”) but hopefully one with a preference for experimentation is more thorough.
That rainbow splash seems to defy spacial logic. It looks like it splattered on the window, but the laptop is clearly in front of it. Conclusion: Rainbow Dash is more awesome than four dimensions can contain.
The little rainbow cloud is adorable and hilarious. That’s not how gasses behave, you say? It’s magic. It ain’t gotta obey shit. Though I still want it explained.
I wonder if pony Twilight might have helped at all with the testing. I rather doubt it. It’s not like she has any insight into magic’s behavior in the human world that Sunset lacks. I guess I just want to see nerds being nerds together. Maybe if they repeat the experiments with human Twilight…
Wait, that’s at least a dozen fics at this point, isn’t it?
Ah yes, our first glimpse of Crystal Prep. I do like the design; it’s reminiscent of the Empire but has a sense of harsh severity all its own. I think it’s the pointy bits combined with the general bricky blockiness, as opposed to the Empire’s pure crystal motif and fairy-tale castle feel.
Rainbow Dash. Of course. I know when I think stealth, I think the girl with bright rainbow hair and an ego the size of an eighteen-wheeler.
To be fair, she is the one most likely to perform this kind of covert operation. As she herself says, they’re the competition. Dash will take any edge she can get against an opponent her side has never beaten. Still, I’m not sure what she hopes to gain from watching what amounts to a gym class.
Remember what I said earlier about Pinkie’s prop magic? Yeah, she more than anyone is evidence that the human world had something supernatural to it long before the Fall Formal. Heck, I’m pretty sure she got that Spike mask from the Happy Mask Salesman, especially given her emulating Tingle later on.
Wow. How sharp are Dash’s fingernails? It’s like she knew she’d need to deal with balloon-related ridiculousness today.
“You smell like vanilla.” Because the next short won’t be doing enough ship teasing.
I’m with Dash, Pinkie. What are you doing? The boom mike was clearly in the shot. I thought I was dealing with a professional here.
I love how the Crystal Prep students just boggle vacantly at the shenanigans. They have no idea what to make of this, and I can’t blame them in the least.
All’s Fair in Love & Friendship Games
Given the focus on background characters (and Flash,) I like to think of the remaining shorts as “Equestria Girls: Slice of Life.” Though there’s a disappointing lack of Derpy in that regard.
Deft avoidance of religion with the “OMGoodness.”
As enthusiastic as everyone is about the tryouts, you’d think they’d be a bit more excited when the actual games come around.
Okay, how did Lyra and Bonbon arrange the spotlights outside? In what is presumably a heliocentric solar system? Are Celestia and Luna not telling Sunset something?
Thank you, Bonbon, for demonstrating that it isn’t just the principals who have really weirdly proportioned legs.
Lyra was always my best character in School Fighter II Ultra Turbo: the Reimagining.
Animation in general needs more caber tossing.
Buddy, this left Weirdsville in the distance a long time ago.
The tryout results are up? Exactly how long were those two shrieking at one another?
I do love how Lyra and Bonbon each looked for the other’s name. Even at the height of their rivalry, they cared about one another. And obviously, all BEST FRIENDS get a heart-shaped iris out. Obviously.
It’s very nice to hear from Photo Finish again. She got one line in Rainbow Rocks, but we haven’t otherwise heard from the character since her introduction. Plus, she’s always enjoyably over the top… though her being in high school underscores the temporal weirdness that exists between the two worlds.
No, Photo, you aren’t going to capture the magics. That’s human Twilight’s job.
I have to wonder how Photo Finish gets any kind of quality work when she poses more than her subjects. On the other hand, I’m not a photographer.
Wait, that’s the guy with an xkcd cutie mark. He plays basketball? Huh. Hidden depths.
“You are striving to put the orb of desire in the net of your future!”
… Do I need to add anything to that? I think it stands on its own.
Oh, hey, Princess Scootaloo.
Not much to say about this one. It goes by too fast. Though I do like Photo Finish’s sheer momentum overwhelming even Luna. It makes me wonder how that altercation would play out with their pony analogues.
And now for the single piece of animation that has done the most to characterize Flash Sentry.
Ah, the blank canvas. One of the most intimidating sights in art.
I suppose just making three banners was out of the question. They probably couldn’t finish them in the allotted time.
Hmm. Someone call in pony Twilight. I want her to test that friendship algorithm and compare it to her own.
That wasn’t projectile science, Flash. Projectile science usually doesn’t leave survivors.
Heh. For once, Luna’s hair is the least glittery in a given scene.
Red, blue, and green get in an argument, and the end result turns out far better than expected. I’m pretty sure this how Animar originally formed.
Not as much to dissect with these, but I still got some good material out of them. Plus, the majority of them carried over Season 5’s “Season of Non-Primary Characters” motif nicely. On to the cards:
Luminous Swarm 1W
Creature — Elemental Insect
Flash
Flying
Whenever Luminous Swarm is dealt damage, you gain that much life.
Formed from forgiveness.
1/1
Glamorous Charger 2WW
Creature — Pegasus Unicorn
Flying, vigilance
Inspired by ancient legends and stories of another world.
3/3
Eavesdropper U
Creature — Human Rogue
Whenever Eavesdropper deals combat damage to a player, look at the top card of that player’s library. You may put it on the bottom of that library.
Morph U (You may cast this card face down as a 2/2 creature for 3. Turn it face up any time for its morph cost.)
1/1
Daring Cat Burglar 1UU
Creature — Human Rogue
Daring Cat Burglar can’t be blocked.
Prowl 1U (You may cast this for its prowl cost if you dealt combat damage to a player this turn with a Human or Rogue.)
2/1
Focused Photographer 2U
Creature — Human Rogue
Prowess (Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, you may tap target creature.
By the time the flash clears from your eyes, she’s already gone.
1/1
Thorough Analysis 2U
Sorcery
Multikicker U (You may pay an additional U any number of times as you cast this spell.)
Scry X, where X is twice the number of times Thorough Analysis was kicked, then draw two cards.
Sunset refused to leave any stone unturned in her efforts to understand magic in the human world.
Learning Experience 3U
Instant
Whenever a creature you control is dealt damage this turn, you may draw a card.
”Studying magic in this world is a matter of trial and plentiful, painful error.”
—Sunset Shimmer
Perfect Rapport 4UU
Instant
Surge 3U (You may cast this spell for its surge cost if you or a teammate has cast another spell this turn.)
Draw three cards. Each of your teammates draws two cards.
Know someone well enough and you have no need for telepathy.
Ultimate Verdict 1BB
Sorcery
Choose two target creatures with the same controller. That player sacrifices one of them.
To most, the Friendship Games tryouts were a chance to have fun before the inevitable loss. To Lyra and Bonbon, they became a matter of life and death.
Crystal Prep Trainer 3B
Creature — Human Advisor
Outlast 1B (1B, T: Put a +1/+1 counter on this creature. Outlast only as a sorcery.)
Each creature you control with a +1/+1 counter on it has menace. (It can’t be blocked except by two or more creatures.)
He takes the phrase “lean, mean fighting machine” very seriously.
2/3
Prismatic Splatter 1R
Instant
Prismatic Splatter deals 2 damage to target creature for each of its colors.
Sunset didn’t think it was quite so bad. Then a little got in her mouth.
Dog Burglar 2R
Creature — Human Rogue
Mountainwalk
Dog Burglar can’t be blocked by creatures with flying.
Rock farming doesn’t exist on this world, but some people still have an incredible affinity for the earth.
2/2
Speed Eater 2R
Creature — Human Warrior
Haste, menace
Devour 2 (As this enters the battlefield, you may sacrifice any number of creatures. This creature enters the battlefield with twice that many +1/+1 counters on it.)
“Needs ketchup.”
1/1
System Overload 3RR
Sorcery
Surge 2RR
Destroy all artifacts. If System Overload’s surge cost was paid, destroy all artifacts your opponents control instead.
Surreal Contest 1G
Sorcery
Choose target creature you control and target creature an opponent controls. Each of those creatures deals damage equal to its converted mana cost to the other.
Luna found herself too morbidly intrigued to stop them.
Eco-Kid Spirit Guide 2G
Creature — Human Spirit
Exile Eco-Kid Spirit Guide from your hand: Add GG to your mana pool. Each opponent gains 5 life.
”Does anyone else smell patchouli?”
—Sunset Shimmer
2/2
Quarreling Creators RG
Creature — Human Citizen
T: Add one mana of a random color to your mana pool.
They’re sure to make something wonderful. It’s anyone’s guess precisely what it will be.
2/1
Sequenced Genome GU
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature you control
Enchanted creature has evolve. (Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, if that creature has greater power or toughness than this creature, put a +1/+1 on this creature.)
Whenever a +1/+1 counter is placed on enchanted creature, you draw a card.
Anticamouflage 1(gu)
Enchantment
When Anticamouflage enters the battlefield, draw a card.
(gu): This turn, creatures your opponents control can be the targets of spells and abilities you control as though they had no abilities.
”Pink is always a suitable color!”
—Pinkie Pie
Photo’s Command 1WU
Instant
Choose two —
• Target creature gains lifelink until end of turn.
• Target creature gains flying until end of turn.
• Tap target creature. It doesn’t untap during its controller’s next untap step.
• Draw a card.
Caber Toss 1RG
Sorcery
Kicker—Sacrifice a land.
Caber Toss deals damage to target creature equal to the number of lands you control. If Caber Toss was kicked, it deals double that damage instead.
Lift Harness 2(wu)
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature has flying.
Whenever enchanted creature attacks, another target attacking creature gains flying until end of turn.
”Helium’s for suckers.”
—Pinkie Pie
Capture the Magics 2(ub)
Instant
Search your library for a card that shares a card type with target spell, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.
Photo Finish’s catchphrase was meant to be figurative. She never imagined what was on its way to Canterlot High.
Have a Blast 2RW
Instant
Have a Blast deals 5 damage to target creature and you gain 5 life.
”I made Pinkie the drummer to channel her energy usefully. I succeeded.”
—Rainbow Dash
Photo’s Posse 2GW
Creature — Human Minion
Whenever another creature you control becomes the target of a spell, put a +1/+1 counter on that creature.
They can prepare someone for a photo shoot even as it’s happening. Given how Photo’s muse works, they usually need to.
2/3
Eco-kid Spirit Guide is bah-roken!
Canterlot High School is very obviously an elite high school, and probably a private school to boot. Which raises the question of just how Sunset Shimmer, Princess Twilight Sparkle and the Dazzlings just walked in and were accepted.
Princess Twilight is a formal scholar and scientist; Sunset Shimmer is too impatient -- she cuts corners. Sometimes that works better, though.
The more I write about her, the more I like Sunset Shimmer -- and I've been writing about pre-reform, defense through paranoid divide-and-conquer tactics Sunset Shimmer. I flat out love post-reform Sunset Shimmer. Not sure why. Maybe it's because she's so much like a pulp Science Hero, especially the former villain turned hero. My Sweetie Finemare would have totally understood her. Horribly enough, so might Blackie DuQuesne (the villain of the Skylark series and hero of the last novel of the series). He might have fallen in love with her. Though I think she'd be scared of him.
In the highly-explicit love scene chapter I've been writing to manuscript last and will be posting soon in An Equestrian Gentlemare ..., Sunset slips up and starts calling Flash something verbally that she'd been calling him in her internal monologue before that. To be fair to her, she's kind of emotionally overcome at the time.
I'm going into Snips and Snails in a later chapter. Don't worry. There's nothing sexual going on there.
3692653 That's an interesting thought - calling one's boyfriend a "stallion" makes perfect sense, it's even a compliment. That particular slip would almost certainly pass unnoticed.
3692776
Yep, that's what she winds up calling him.
Sounds like an explosion waiting to happen.
I hold by my hypothesis that the equipment might be able to do whatever Sunset was expecting it to if it weren’t for the initial surge of energy overwhelming the sensors. And, frequently, Sunset herself.
.
In my fanon, these would be tests Sunset originally meant to do on herself to figure out how she could generate and control magical energy in the Humanoid world. I do see a lot of the bleed of PKE into easily-detectible forms as electromagnetic, often from the visual to radio part of the spectrum, with peaks in visual and LF radio (sight and telepathy respectively). Sunset herself is a naturally-gifted pyrokinetic, and is good producing a lot of HF infrared. Which is why she nearly destroys her own apartment, when she's all charged up with ... not exactly what she thinks it is.
I think Sci-Twi understands Earth technology better than does Sunset, whose background is so very much Equestrian (she's only had a few years to study Earth technology). I also think that Sunset and Sci-Twi are going to be extremely good friends after the events of Friendship Games.
I remember I was rather worried before Friendship Games aired... The promo materials were of variable quality, shall we say, and the shorts left me underwhelmed
I thought they were altogether trying too hard. I was afraid that this was a bad sign for the film. I was very happy and relieved when it aired and far exceeded my hopes.
Wouldn't it make more sense if System Overload's surged effect destroyed all artifacts not controlled by players on your team?
Sequenced Genome is a pretty cool card. Which short inspired you to come up with it?
And Photo's Posse makes everyone a hero! Or at least it makes them all look heroic.
3692653
Yeah, that's what really makes me scratch my head. The Dazzlings may have had mind control on their side, but Twilight literally just walked into the building and signed up for a prom queen ballot. As I've jokingly noted in several stories, I'm almost positive that she never attended any classes.
Sunset's choice to attack Twilight's image rather than question her eligibility to run implies that either this is the normal state of affairs for Canterlot High or that Sunset didn't want the possibly questionable circumstances of her own enrollment brought into focus. Or Sunset was just using the tried and true tactics that had worked on the rest of the student body, but that's a far less interesting possibility.
And yeah, Sunset is great fun to write. I think it's the sense of warring opposites in her mind: rage and empathy, the bully and the hero, the demon and the angel. I don't think the taijitu in her cutie mark is there by accident. In my headcanon, even her talent is blending seemingly contradictory magics, just as the sun is a force of both creation and destruction. (I can attribute the idea to Chengar Qordath noting that pyromancy and cryomancy both ultimately come down to heat manipulation.)
There's a palpable sense of struggle as Sunset tries to overcome who she was and become who she wants to be. It's a very compelling aspect of her character. I know that's why I like writing her.
And human Twilight is definitely going to be invaluable in the further study of magic in the human world... as long as she doesn't try to analyze Pinkie Pie. We already know that that won't end well.
3692630
Hey, "Spirit Guide" has an established meaning in Magic. Though I admit that a turn-one Kalonian Behemoth that puts your opponent on a four-turn clock is theoretically possible with it.
Moral of the story: Never underestimate hippies.
3692916
Eh, this is me we're talking about. It can be hard for me to look at something critically unless I really try.
3692935
System Overload: Why yes, yes it would. I've made the appropriate change.
Sequenced Genome: Inspiration came from the frequent references to DNA in "A Banner Day."
3693038
I wish I had that skill: I find it far too easy to see the bad things and difficult to focus on the good
... Do we even know where Animar is from? Muraganda, maybe?
3693416
Bug report: Achievement awarded despite not doing "Magical Mystery Cure."
In all seriousness, I called this the penultimate card blog for a reason. You didn't think I'd go on hiatus with something as unremarkable as a few Equestria Girls shorts, did you? We're ending this with a bang.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2013/3/3/261540__safe_pinkie+pie_animated_dragon+ball+z_magical+mystery+cure_dragon+ball_element+of+laughter_cell_cell+%28dbz%29_perfect+cell.gif
... Maybe not that much of a bang.
3693445
Whoops. I somehow forgot what penultimate meant.
I like to think that it came out of the computer, hit the far wall and rebounded back onto the window, all in the blink of an eye.
So Glamorous Charger isn't a Pony? It'd be good in a Hoofcraft deck if it was.
Eavesdropper made me think of fateseal. The ability isn't quite fateseal but is rather close.
i was going to shame you at first for not having used fateseal but then I re-read just what fateseal was.
I wish we'd get a set with fateseal. I'd also like to see "assemble", Aura swap and Fortify at some point as well.
Perfect Rapport looks like it would be a good card for an Emperor deck.
Very minor nit-pick on the flavor text for Crystal Prep Trainer; I've always head the phrase with a second pause after "mean", so it would be "lean, mean, fighting machine", with a second comma.
I find it a little funny that Prismatic Splatter does nothing against most artifact creatures, while Red is really good at getting rid of artifacts. But because Red is good at removing artifacts it's fine that this card is a dud against a narrow subset of things.
And the majority of Eldrazi. (There are six that DO have a color, from before Devoid.)
I had to look up what "patchouli" for the flavor text of Eco-Kid Spirit Guide. I think Sunset is more of the type of girl to just say "mint" instead of a plant species name, yet at the same time it doesn't seem to out-of-character for her to know that patchouli is a member of the mint family. Though I don't know if she'd be the type of person to know the difference in smell between the various members of said family.
You've sparked an "Is this out-of-character?" discussion with one word in one line of dialogue. That's good writing.
I've always wanted some means of shutting down hexproff, and Anticamouflage is a nice means of doing it.
3693896
Glamorous Charger: Hoofcraft counts Ponies, Pegasi, and/or Unicorns. The Charger still counts. It's just that Watermelody is clearly painting a horse.
Eavesdropper: This card was going to have a fateseal ability, but it felt off to be able to screw over a player other than the one you hit.
I too would like to see a set with Riggers. Assemble probably won't look anything like my guess, but I can dream.
Crystal Prep Trainer: "Fighting machine" is a noun phrase. "Lean" and "mean" are both adjectives modifying that noun phrase. Just because something is punctuated for emphasis doesn't mean that that punctuation is correct.
Eco-Kid Spirit Guide: Incense containing patchouli oil was the stereotypical hippie fragrance, part of what the movement borrowed from East Asian culture. Since spells powered by Simian Spirit Guide smell like burnt hair, the conclusion seemed obvious.
Anticamouflage: If you're looking for anti-hexproof cards that actually exist, you'll like Arcane Lighthouse, Archetype of Endurance, Glaring Spotlight, and Anticamouflage's direct inspiration, Bonds of Mortality. Who knew green was so good at removing that?
Huh. I expected Prismatic Splatter to involve all the colors, 'cause "Prismatic". But, it's based on Rainbow Dash.
Umm... Typos:
Years later:
Swamp, Rit, False Cure, pitch four Eco-Kid Spirit Guides, gg.