Friendship is Card Games: Spring Breakdown · 12:04pm Mar 31st, 2019
We return to animation with a bang and several buckets’ worth of shenanigan potential. Let’s begin
We’re happy to see you again too, Pinkie.
At the time, I thought Pinkie and Bulk recreating the “king of the world” Titanic scene was just a fun reference. Didn’t realize it’d foreshadow several elements of the special.
Interesting to see the Mane Seven further customize their geodes with armbands, headbands, and so forth. I suppose the necklaces just don’t go with everything.
Heh. I do appreciate Rainbow Dash recognizing the tropes of a typical Equestria Girls adventure, including the inevitable reformation and befriending of the antagonist… not that most of those antagonists are anywhere to be seen in this episode. Well, there’s your friends and then there’s your “save the world together” friends.
Meanwhile, the others have an understandable case of adventure fatigue. They never asked for this, and they’re hoping to actually relax on this trip.
Ugh, that one guy should really wear a shirt at the buffet.
Wait, why kick Pinkie out of the buffet if Dash was the one who went for the tackle? Though given how seriously this woman takes her cakes, I suppose I can’t expect perfect rationality. Especially since I suspect she’s Pinkie’s distant relative.
Huh. The goats and sheep are just as colorful as the humans. More chromelanic species confirmed. Must have played merry havoc with the economy of dyes in this world.
Insert Monty Python joke regarding evil rabbits here.
Interesting how this Applejack gets seasick so easily when the pony was able and willing to captain a ship. I suppose human AJ never spent any time on her aunt and uncle’s yacht.
Nice touch with the gulls immediately going for Applejack’s vomit. That’s scavengers for you.
Well, if the girls’ magic was a secret before this cruise, it certainly isn’t now. For several reasons, yes, but particularly Dash shouting about it.
Obvious Trixie was obvious. Though I do kind of want to see her and Dash facing off in a LARP. All of the blue ham. All of it.
I won’t lie, I took an immediate dislike to Ragamuffin. Not like this subfranchsie has a good track record with male characters coming out of the woodwork. Though the fact that appearance-wise, he’s literally R63 Applejack makes Rarity’s instant infatuation kind of hilarious.
Also, it strikes me that uniforms are even more dehumanizing in this setting. Ragamuffin, like the rest of the crew, has no readily apparent cutie mark. That star and swoosh appear to be the logo of the cruise company.
Poor Twilight. I know exactly how she feels: “I did this thing to make you happy! Why aren’t you happy? If you’re not happy, that means I failed at doing the thing.”
Heh. Good to see the others have the same reaction I did to the latest crowbarred-in love interest. Twilight in particular seems to notice the resemblance.
Speaking of which, the Flashimmer swoon was cute, but I don’t see it going anywhere. Not like anything came of Cheerilee’s reaction to Big Mac in “Filli Vanilli.”
“I don’t want to tell you how to do your jobs” says the girls standing between the crew and their job.
Yeah, they really overplayed Dash’s obnoxiousness in the first part of the special. It was honestly something of a relief to see her gone for a bit.
Huh. Both the school play and “Rollercoaster of Friendship” have already happened. Very interesting. Based on the chronology involved, I think this is the Spring Break of the girls’ senior year. Well, that and this generation winding down.
Twilight, you’re superheroes. You’re absolutely superheroes. In fact, I’ve already addressed this point in Visitation Rites:
Applejack raised an eyebrow. "Pinkie, y'do know we're not actually superheroes, right?"
Pinkie raised her dessert. "You're super-strong and I can explode this pudding cup with my mind. You sure we're not superheroes?”
Wow. Apparently the cruise ship was dead in the water overnight, going by how Twilight says Dash pulled her crap “last night.”
“I wouldn’t trade you for anything in the world! In any world!”
“Same here.”
I will sail this ship and use anything they give me to do so.
I quite like Dash’s voice mail message. “Leave a message, if you’re too old to text me.” Very her. I like it. Also, very impressive cell phone coverage in this world… though in that case, Dash could’ve just taken a picture of the Storm King symbol on the water. Of course, that would require Rainbow Dash to think while excited.
And there goes Sunset, martyring herself again with the “I’m responsible for magic” rationale. You’re heading for a counterargument, Sunbutt Jr.
I hope Applejack read the manual.
Poor Twilight. Green hates blue, and isn’t hesitating to make that displeasure known.
Typical Rainbow Dash. The only time she stops for self-reflection is when she literally has no other option.
Given the nature of that quicksand, do you think Dash notices her back half is fuzzy?
Oh hey, the plant monster from Friendship Games. Portals must be its usual ecological niche and hunting strategy. Go into low-magic worlds and prey on the unprepared. Seems effective.
So, where exactly did Sunset see something like the quicksand portal? And this raises a number of questions, especially regarding just how many other portals there are on this world. No one said they all had to go to Equestria either.
Heh. Humans go to Equestria and find themselves in the Everfree. All that’s missing is a pouncing manticore.
Also, fascinating to see several data confirmed. EqG humans do transform in Equestria, they do get cutie marks, their tribe corresponds to their local analogue… and Twilight doesn’t have wings. I suppose the ones she gets while human are a reflection of the princess’s. Interesting. And “All my things are horse things!” is fantastic.
Another nice detail is how Dash’s wings are spread and limp whenever she isn’t using them. She’s not used to just having wings without having some purpose for them. It’s like how pony Twilight balls up her hands when she’s not using her fingers.
Oh, and none of them raised any objections about the whole “disappearing clothes” thing, though I suppose drawing attention to it might have bumped up the rating of the special.
Rarity trying to respond to CB lingo with pirate talk was great.
I am a bit disappointed the Dashes never met. As for Twinkleshine’s glare, I wouldn’t be surprised if she remembers Sunset from Canterlot.
Ooh, more from pony Dali. Nice. Though the punchbowl and cheese wedge make me suspect this is actually a landscape. No doubt Discord appreciates his work.
Huh. Spike doesn’t have his wings. Very interesting chronology marker there.
“I like her.” You’ve met. Silly Twilights. Maybe she doesn’t recognize herself.
Props on the timing with turning the engine back on. Just long enough to leave me uncertain about when they’d do it.
Dragons have weddings. Huh. Didn’t expect that.
It feels odd that human Twilight has issues with fine telekinetic control. This is specifically what her magic is in the human world; you’d think it would operate on similar principles. Maybe the controls are reversed.
Can we please put a moratorium on “20% cooler”?
Trixie despairing at her power did make up for that. Somewhat.
The table stuff is very interesting. We’ve got the stone die from “Uncommon Bond,” a massive sack of glopaz (presumably distinct from the one in “Daring Done?”,) Mr. Turnip, a rubber chicken that probably isn’t Boneless given the whole “turned into the Key of Laughter” thing, the Staff of Sameness, the Alicorn Amulet,which Twilight apparently just leaves lying around in the same building as Starlight Glimmer… and the assorted artifacts that play a role in Season 8’s story arc. Apparently Celestia was sending a while before the spellvenger hunt.
Oh, and the Staff of Sacanas, Which can apparently absorb the Storm King’s disembodied soul. Did not see that one coming.
Also didn’t see some of that soul becoming a skizzik. Dying while attuned to an artifact that powerful has some nasty consequences.
Dash, wearing your geode on your wrist doesn’t make it an Omnitrix. You don’t get to use that catchphrase.
How tough is that cake if it can trap a woman’s ankle while completely soaked with seawater?
Interesting to see that the girls were ponied up/rainbow lasered/magical girlified for minutes if not hours over the course of the evacuation efforts. This sort of thing has only even been done in short bursts before; it wasn’t clear if that kind of long-term, low-level output was possible. Also, they can all fly, going by Sunset Supermanning that toddler back to her mother.
So, Ragamuffin was completely pointless. Good to know.
And that ending. So many people wandering through Equestria. I don’t care how good Sunset’s sneaking skills are, the secret is out on the pony end of things. This could actually explain how the worlds opened up relations in Shoeshine and the Khaki Maniac. Kind of called it?
Also, Sunset finally got to invade with that teenage army.
In all, I could’ve used more Equestrian shenanigans and less Rainbow obnoxiousness, but I still got a kick out of this. I’ll probably enjoy it even more the second time around now that I know when that early insufferability ends. Mind you, DrakeyC’s idea where the Mane Seven just went to Equestria for Spring Break sounds like it’d be even more entertaining, but that’s what fanfiction’s for.
Now, time to rain down some cards.
Aggressive Exorcist 1W
Creature — Human Cleric
Whenever Aggressive Exorcist attacks, exile target card from defending player’s graveyard.
Sometimes expelling a possessing spirit involves long, elaborate rituals. Sometimes you just have to punch the host.
2/2
Telekinetic Arrester 1U
Creature — Human Wizard
XU: Tap target creature with power X or less.
“When I say ‘hold still,’ I mean it.”
1/2
High Seas Conjurer 2U
Creature — Human Wizard
When High Seas Conjurer enters the battlefield, target Island you control becomes a 3/3 Elemental creature with flying for as long as High Seas Conjurer remains on the battlefield. It’s still a land.
Some spells aren’t meant for the stage.
1/1
Persistence of Memory 2U
Sorcery
Target player shuffles their graveyard into their library. Scry 2.
“I made a new friend today. I’m not sure how to feel about that.”
—Discord
Voice Thief 2U
Creature — Spirit
Whenever you cast a Spirit or Arcane spell, target creature loses all abilities until end of turn.
Silence is merely the absence of sound, but try telling that to something that represents the concept.
2/3
Algal Glow 3U
Instant
Creature your opponents control get -3/-0 until end of turn.
Draw a card.
“People say nature is ‘honest.’ The truth is that we can’t even begin to understand its deceptions.”
—Twilight Sparkle
Mocking Macaw 3U
Creature — Bird
Flash
Flying
When Mocking Macaw enters the battlefield, copy target instant or sorcery spell. You may choose new targets for the copy.
2/1
International Waters 3UU
Enchantment
At the beginning of each player’s end step, that player may exchange control of target creature they control and target creature you don’t control.
Loyalty flows like the waves when all are far from home.
Benthic Dragon 4UU
Creature — Dragon
Flying
1U: Creatures defending player controls get -1/-0 until end of turn. Activate this ability only if Benthic Dragon is attacking.
With no action in sight, Rainbow Dash imagined the perfect sea monster.
5/5
Beggar the Imagination 1B
Sorcery
Target player reveals their hand. You choose a card from it with converted mana cost 4 or greater. That player discards that card. If you can’t, that player discards two cards.
Rarity makes others pale in comparison without even trying.
Emotional Gut Punch 1B
Instant
Target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn for each other creature its controller controls.
Those kept closest can quickly become enemies.
Irate Pastry Chef 2B
Creature — Human Citizen
Lifelink
Whenever an opponent gains life, return Irate Pastry Chef from your graveyard to your hand.
Hell hath no fury like a woman sconed.
3/1
Contraband Haggler 3B
Creature — Human Pirate
Sacrifice another creature: Create a colorless Treasure artifact token with “T, Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color.”
T, Sacrifice X Treasures: Return target creature card with converted mana cost X or less from a graveyard to the battlefield.
2/3
“All Good” 1R
Enchantment — Song
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a verse counter on “All Good”.
Sacrifice “All Good”: Destroy all artifacts with converted mana cost X or less, where X is the number of verse counters on “All Good”.
Irony is a magic all its own.
Dancing Lightning 1R
Instant
Dancing Lightning deals 3 damage to target creature.
R: You may choose a new target for Dancing Lightning. Activate this ability only if Dancing Lightning is on the stack.
The girls grew suspicious when the bolts began to aim for them.
Eager Troublemaker 1R
Creature — Human Warrior
Trample
The first spell each opponent casts each turn costs 2 less to cast.
“Safety’s boring. Let’s see what you’ve got!”
4/4
Storm Sigil 1R
Enchantment
Whenever a creature deals damage to you, Storm Sigil deals 2 damage to that creature.
His body lost and mind sundered, the only thought left to the Storm King is revenge.
Full Throttle 2R
Sorcery
All Vehicles become artifact creatures until your next turn. Goad them. (Until your next turn, those creatures attack each combat if able and attack a player other than you if able.)
“Brakes are for quitters.”
—Rainbow Dash
Jagged Breakers 2R
Creature — Wall
Defender
Whenever Jagged Breakers blocks an artifact creature, Jagged Breakers gains first strike until end of turn.
Some shores refuse to be navigated safely.
5/2
Rainbow Laser 2RR
Instant
Converge — Rainbow Laser deals 2 damage to target creature or planeswalker for each color of mana spent to cast Rainbow Laser.
“Visible lasers are actually a grossly inefficient form of weaponry… when magic isn’t involved.”
—Twilight Sparkle
Transformed Courser 3R
Creature — Pegasus Warrior
Flying
Champion a Human (When this enters the battlefield, sacrifice it unless you exile a Human you control. When this leaves the battlefield, that card returns to the battlefield.)
Transformed Course attacks each combat if able.
5/4
Dimension Creeper 1GG
Creature — Plant
Whenever you roll the planar die, put a +1/+1 counter on Dimension Creeper.
It lurks between worlds, preying on anything that doesn’t know how to process its existence.
1/1
Tropical Orb-Weaver 2G
Creature — Spider
Reach
Whenever Tropical Orb-Weaver blocks or becomes blocked by a blue creature, Tropical Orb-Weaver gets +2/+0 until end of turn.
“Zoology is best done in theory or by someone else.”
—Twilight Sparkle
2/3
Emerge from the Everfree 2GG
Sorcery
Sweep — Return any number of Forests you control to their owner’s hand. Create that many 2/2 green Pony creature tokens. They gain haste until end of turn.
“We get more new ponies that way.”
—Pinkie Pie, Bearer of Laughter
Fecund Patriarch 2GG
Creature — Rabbit
Rabbitlink (Damage dealt by this creature also causes you to create that many 1/1 green Rabbit creature tokens.)
Other Rabbits you control get +1/+1.
G, Tap two untapped Rabbits you control: Create a 1/1 green Rabbit creature token.
3/3
Mystic Haze 3G
Instant
Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt by creatures other than target creature this turn.
Draw a card.
Long exposure has made Trixie immune to her own smoke bombs.
Razor Spatula 2
Artifact — Equipment
Equipped creature gets +2/+0.
As long as equipped creature is a Human, it has trample.
Equip 2
With enough determination, anything can be a weapon.
Lux Deluxe 3
Legendary Artifact — Vehicle
Tap an untapped creature you control with converted mana cost 5 or greater: Lux Deluxe becomes an artifact creature until end of turn.
Crew 4 (Tap any number of creatures you control with total power 4 or more: This Vehicle becomes an artifact creature until end of turn.)
7/5
Terror of Caerbannog 1BG
Creature — Rabbit Horror
Kicker R (You may pay an additional R as you cast this spell.)
Flash
Deathtouch
When Terror of Caerbannog enters the battlefield, if it was kicked, it gains first strike until end of turn.
2/1
Storm of Vengeance 5BR
Creature — Elemental Spirit
Flying
When Storm of Vengeance enters the battlefield, each opponent who has more life than you loses life equal to the difference.
Suspend 4 — 1BR
Whenever a time counter is removed from Storm of Vengeance while it’s exiled, it deals 1 damage to each player.
5/4
Untamed Isle
Land
When Untamed Isle enters the battlefield, you gain 1 life.
T: Add C.
1, T: Add G, U, or R.
Humanity’s mastery of their world isn’t as complete as they like to think.
Natural Portal
Phenomenon
When you encounter Natural Portal, until a player planeswalks away from a plane, if a player would roll the planar die, that player instead rolls it twice and ignores one of those results. (Then planeswalk away from this phenomenon.)
I only caught the first half-ish of the special and I confess that I instantly liked Ragamuffin. The prospect of a charming stranger who could brighten Rarity’s life has appeal to me for reasons that definitely probably aren’t related to a possible hypothetical sequel to a novel I may or may not have written.
It seems I have only disappointment ahead of me?
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He doesn't do anything wrong. It's just that he doesn't really do anything at all. He serves no narrative purpose. At least Flash dismantled the frame job in the first movie.
But hey, my favorite pony is an animation error. If you like Ragamuffin, I'm not going to stop you. Though you should definitely still see the rest of the special.
I have a little headcanon on why Sci-Twi only has wings in the human world but not Equestria:
The wings that pop up in her human form are actually a leftover mutation due to the fact that the first time she "ponied up" it was as Midnight Sparkle due too unstable magic.
Since she was transformed into a pony through a normal process with stable magic it turned her into a standard unicorn instead of an alicorn.
Oh I don't know. They mention Equestria world. Didn't Valencia wanted them to perform because they were already so well known and trending for their 'magical' shows. I imagine humans treat the Rainbooms as a band that curiously don't need all the usual pyrotechnics one expects from other bands. I guess that's why they can perform on a boat.
It's funny. If he was a complete rando I would seethe at them undoing all the hardwork of Rollercoaster of Friendship. But considering he's Rule 63 Applejack... the fact that the others acknowledge it with their 'what the buck' glances. I dunno.
They do say a dramatic goodbye to each other at the end and he drops his hokey accent makes me think maybe the cruise hires your own Titanic Jack-like imitator as part of its luxurious package? At least one ship didn't sink
"Just because Sci-Twi said that line while leaning over and then Sunset replied to that line touching back and then they did a soft musical cord with a slow zoom in on Sci-Twi's smiling face. You shippers like to see shipping in everything!" --Typical Derpibooru U-Boat Commenter.
I find it telling that Sci-Twi didn't invite Timber the Lifeguard on a cruise she seemingly paid for and organized, but what do I know. I am just a Rear Admiral in Her Majesties Royal Service
I like Sci-Twi immediately set out booping noses.
Since this takes place before the Friendship School. Twilight has still yet to understand the value of keeping her adventurous knickknacks in something other than a box in a closet. She'll throw Seapony Princess Aurora's Tide Control Necklace in a wooden box with Grover's crown and Clover's Cape. (Which after Cozy uses them in School Raze makes me think that yes they are all incredibly magical). Perhaps Twilight just has a mental blindness that anything other than a book can have any kind of worth to her at all.
To be fair. Being Exploded to pieces, or being Kamehameha x10 or getting an overdose on love doesn't stop most villains from having a continuous existence afterwards.
The Staff of Sacanas seemed to be especially tuned to be a magic sink / capacitor. (Where is the MTG card for it!)
Yeah I noticed that too! Though Sunset should have slapped that lady. Who leaves their kid behind when you are running off a boat? Why didn't the mother(?) Big sister(?) stop when she lost her kid's hand? Also why do the crew member and other CHS students walk past a wailing 5 year old when hurrying off a sinking ship? It really bothered me, but I guess its more evidence that Pedestria really is Eternal High School Purgatory pocket universe if noone fears authority or lawsuits or jail.
I am just sad that the end gag shot of the special would have made a more incredibly interesting movie
My biggest sticking point among the many small issues with this special is that there's no coast guard whatsoever. You'd think the captain would have called mayday immediately the instant the engine broke. We even know they had working radios! But no, they're stuck for days until the whole boat sinks and they all need to be saved by schoolgirls.
Also, are you seeing these WAR spoilers? My hype is through the roof right now. They had the balls to bring back freaking Proliferate in the Planeswalker set!
As I said on Derpibooru, I'll say here:
I still find it amusing that of all the background ponies they could include in that shot at the end, they specifically chose Lyra as one of them. Flash Sentry and Derpy/Muffins makes sense, and I suppose Bulk Biceps also counts as a fan favorite, but Lyra of all the ponies certainly calls out to the fandom’s most popular interpretations of her character. This is especially doubled down on, since this is the human version of the character in Equestria; quite the ironic reversal of Anthropology and all of its influenced works.
You have thoroughly corrupted me, oh High Priest of the Glorious Proclaimer.
When they had the scene where they showed how much Applejack and Ragamuffin looked alike, and the girls noticed, I was expecting it to at least be commented on. Not sure what would be said exactly, but something.
With Sunset and Sci-Twi, they do seem to have more romantic chemistry in that scene than Princess Twilight had with Flash or Sci-twi with Timber.
As for Sci-Twi and her telekinetic struggles, it makes sense to me for two reasons. Both going back to her hands. The first, and biggest one, is that she channels her telekinetic powers through her hands. You'll notice they glow and she even makes movements with them to make her magic do what she wants. She'll raise it to lift something, or close it to grab an item. So to her, the telekinesis is just an extension of her using her hands. When using a horn, not only is that different body part, but one she can't actually move. So she can't move or shift it to indicate what she wants. The second is that she likely doesn't use it for the finer movements. Those, she would normally do manually. Especially since it would give her a better sense for what she was doing since she could actually feel the object.
Inter-dimensional predator plants...sure, why not? It probably has burrs that stick to planeswalkers that use natural portals, and can naturally detect planar rifts. I've always liked the ideas of things without the power to dimension-hop themselves that instead piggyback on other's magic.
The thing about Ragamuffin is that he can be used either as shipping fuel OR an effort to reassure The Radar that Rarity is straight. He's insidious that way.
But Sunset and Twilight? Even if they're not dating, they are obviously and completely in love and they both know it.
I still contend that Sunset and Twilight aren't alicorns strictly because they've already ascended as something else on Pedestria. If they became Alicorns on top of being Ascendant (whatever that means in detail) the level of OP would be frankly silly. Not that I mind, given Oversaturated...
5035703
I also imagine the power just flows completely differently through an organ designed to channel magic than through human hands that have magic basically by accident. She might even be more powerful as a unicorn, and with a whole new set of controls she's not used to (for all the magic that ISN'T telekinesis) and having more power plus less restrictions is trouble.
But yeah, even missing the gestures and having to imagine everything with no mnemonic is also a thing. In Mass Effect they mention that as an issue for Biotics, they use gestures for training even if they aren't actually necessary.
5035641
Interesting concept. It does raise the question of whether that mutation can lead to a full Midnight relapse. Presumably the rainbow lasers help ensure that doesn't happen.
5035643
Looking at the transcript, she never specifies why the Rainbooms have a hundred thousand followers, but the special effects probably factor into it. Still, the vast majority of those fans likely haven't seen them live, so it's debatable whether or not anyone believes they have genuine magical power.
I'd ask why everyone didn't get one, but I suppose they only had the one in stock.
It's the scientific approach: Poke things with a hoof and see how they react.
Makes sense, given how she handled security with the Table of Relative Dimensions in Space while Starlight was still at large.
Oh, it's not his continued activity that surprises me, it's the fact that they sucked his soul into that thing. And, you know, tore it in half in the process.
In the movie's FiCG of course!
So is the distressingly sinkable cruise ship.
Hey, if they won't make that story, we will.
5035680
Was there even a captain? For all we know, the entire ship was run by a bunch of waiters with no mechanical training. And maybe an AI. Darn self-driving boats.
And forget proliferate, Tezzeret gives your guys affinity for artifacts!
Also, I look forward to using Dreadhorde Invasion to feed Grimgrin in one of my Commander decks. War of the Spark looks like it's going to be wonderfully insane, but I am glad I bought a bunch of d6s recently.
5035698
I'm not sure if it was deliberate or not, but it is a very amusing inclusion.
5035700
5035703
The hand-horn contrast is a fantastic point. The transition away from somatic components is going to be awfully disorienting for her.
5035726
Huh. What does it mean to be an ascendant human? (One whose name isn't Homura, anyway.) And does that same principle apply for, say, Gloriosa Daisy and Juniper Montage? (Or Wallflower Blush, if we go by the "even the audience can't remember her demon form" hypothesis.)
And yes, always spend at least thirty subjective seconds in the Blind Eternities when planeswalking to ensure total decontamination.
5035740
Well it's a good question what Ascending would mean. It's definitely not strictly tied to Harmony, since Twilight became Midnight first. Gloriosa probably qualifies, since she was (mis)using the harmony stones. And Sunset did the same thing as a demon, corrupting an Element. Juniper certainly powered up but she was smaller scale, she just got giant and delusional. She wasn't flying under her own power and controlling a whole forest or anything.
If Wallflower was so strong even we can't remember her, well, breaking the Fourth Wall is definitely ascension tier. But I'd be surprised if she did. She was mostly making really good use of a magic item, it didn't effect her personally that much. Probably because it wasn't wild magic that bonded to her, it was someone else's deliberately crafted tool.
I think the common thread with all these is that the people involved are attuning themselves to something, either Harmony or Discord. Someone in a bad place emotionally, like Sci-Twi and Juniper, or who is actively perverting powers of Harmony like Sunset and Gloriosa, will get caught in a Discordant feedback loop. It amplifies their negative emotions and warps their mind to justify themselves. It's also why Juniper didn't power up very far. She became delusional enough that her desires were actually satisfied, so the loop got cut off.
A consequence of this comes from how magic seems to come from emotion and personality. It's like the force really. More emotion, positive or negative, enhances your power. And that power enhances your emotions...
Anyway, short version. Ascending means becoming attuned to Harmony or Discord, with the power that comes with that. And Harmony manifests like an Alicorn, because of course it does.
Haw.
5035626
I'm more bemused/confused about Mister "Dead-Ringer for male Applejack who also happens to have a thick accent".
It's... clever. Shippers can play this card in more ways than one, easily twisting it into reaffirming RariJack. (Rarity fell for a guy who looked like Applejack as a guy. Ahem. Hay, his skin tone is more Applejack than Applejack's herself.
)
(Wait, shouldn't her fur-coat be a different color when she turns into a pony? Or does the "chromelanin deficiency" not translate to a fur coat?
)
The fact he didn't do much was probably playing it safe from a fandom perspective. (Well, ok, probably not what the writers were thinking, but that's the effect it'll have from our point of view.) The possibility of a new ship is teased, while at the same time reaffirming an already existing ship in a strangely roundabout way. Both sides win. Whatever that "other side" is.
Also, if that guy doesn't have some apple-ancestry, Ah'm gonna eat mah hat! (That I don't have. So that's pretty easy in case I lose.
)
Also... was anybody else wondering about a certain character's backstory in this movie? Someone who followed our heroes along for a short part of their journey, who played an integral role at a crucial moment, yet managed to remain inconspicuous, playing innocent the entire time...
There's a portal to Equestria on the island.
...Remember how Spike turns into a dog when he goes to the human world?
Yeah, I wanna know this guy's backstory:
derpicdn.net/img/view/2019/3/31/1999376.png
"THE SHIP IS STILL SINKING!" That's no ordinary parrot. Very possibly came through the portal from Equestria.
Following the heroes as they set foot on the island, confirming Rainbow Dash’s presence and where she went, then later mocking her overconfidence ("SQUACK! I'm going into that jungle!" "Anyone could've said that." "SQUACK! ...Or my name isn't Rainbow Dash! SQUACK!"); recognizing the danger and alerting Sunset and friends to the sinking ship, yet pretending to just be a regular animal the whole time?
Who is he, and why is he in hiding?
5035956
I was going to reply, but there was more and more possibilities. So I'm just going to list some.
I spent much of the last three-fourths of the special wondering where Pinkie put the rest of her hair.
Human Twilight apparently had no qualms about wearing her stage dress while working in the dirty, greasy engine room.
I felt uncomfortable watching that scene where Twilight knowingly prompted Rainbow with questions that would make her look more and more foolish. Twilight hasn't been part of this friend group long enough to where she should be comfortable giving any of the others a good-natured hard time, and the mockery in her expression ("Which means...?") was crueler than we've seen any Twilight being.
Then again... Princess Twilight also didn't seem too concerned for her friends' well-being. "The magic of the Storm King, who very nearly overtook Equestria, is still present and threatening your world? The only way to contain it is with this staff that you three have never encountered before! I'm sure you can handle it on your own. I have a painting to hang."
Seconded. And given Sunset's expression in that scene, I think she agrees.
5035698
Well, they were limited to the background-ponies-turned-humans who were on the boat, and that selection seemed to be limited to the characters who had already been given beach attire in the summertime shorts. Without scanning the episode again, I think the only other choices they would have had were Trixie, Octavia, and DJ Pon-3.
I was more taken by the fact that Lyra was seemingly missing her horn (unless it was hiding behind her mane) and that they made her too small in comparison to the rest of the group. I'm tempted to dive further into that, but I have to remind myself that the animators just put her in there as filler for a four-second shot.
Pretty much ever since the beginning of the Equestria Girls spinoff, all I've wanted is to see the human main characters become ponies and interact with their Equestrian counterparts. So I could have done with a lot more Equestria scenes and a lot fewer cruise ship scenes (say, by excising the Ragamuffin subplot entirely).
Is that an actual story, or just an idea? 'Cause that sounds like what I rather would have watched.
5035995
All valid possibilities.
But if it's one of the first three options, then why pretend to be "just" an animal? Unless they're hiding from someone... possibly the Equestrian government?
5035626
I feel like I missed the punchline of a joke there at the end, when Rarity said "All coal turns to diamonds!" and Raggamuffin went "Huh! That's the best advise I ever heard!"
And Rarity goes "wait, what?!"
I feel like I missed a joke here, what's Rarity so surprised by?
I probably don't remember the "coal miner play" short well enough to get if it's a reference to something there, and I'm also still catching up (in partly-reverse order) to all the EQG shorts ever since Hasbro actually put up a playlist for those.
5035764
I mean, we all knew Pinkie was hiding her true power level, but still.
So we've seen a wide variety of human draconequi then. Neat!
5035956
That deficiency was Masterweaver's idea. Personally, I'm pretty sure that Applejack isn't quite on the normal human spectrum. Close, but not quite.
As for the parrot, I'm going to side with 5035995's Option 3. Though how the parrot pirate got to the middle of the Everfree, what they're running from, and why they want to help a bunch of naked apes is left as an exercise for whoever wants to tackle that story.
Ragamuffin dropped his horrible Cockney accent on that last line, indicating that he'd been faking it the whole time for reasons known only to him.
5036052
She folded it into its own higher-dimensional structure. This cuts down on available storage capacity, but lightens to burden as some of the mass is shunted outside of conventional spacetime.
As for Sci-Twi's interrogation, remember, she arranged the trip and is trying her utmost to make all of her friends enjoy it. Dash, in Twilight's eyes, was doing the exact opposite. She had become a problem. And we know what Twilight Sparkle does to problems.
Mind you, I'm not saying Twilight was right; I just understand where she's coming from.
There are several on the site featuring EqG humanoids in Equestria, with varying degrees of seriousness. If you want some goofy fun and don't mind a slow burn at first, I recommend Mission to the Pony Planet.
5035956
I don't know, but we know his species is almost certainly the dinosaur pirates. Griffons and Hippogriffs are both hawks.
Now I need a good word for 'dinosaur people'. There are the Dromaed from City of Giants, but I don't think anyone will know what I mean if I say that.
5036446
They are a planar traveler who knows how to find and use natural portals. This has lots of people very interested, which they would rather avoid.
5036692
I don't think they're Draconequii. I see Discord as the equal and opposite number to the Tree of Harmony. So if Sunset and Twilight are Alicorns when Harmonic and Nightmares when Discordant, then Gloriosa is like a Windigo in scale. A powerful being with an affiliation, but not quite cosmic.
And yes, Pinkie has definitely been hiding her true power. I've always said her toon physics come from having an attunement to Laughter and making active use of it.
Well, that and having a really solid grasp of Earth Pony tricks. Pinkie isn't random, she's a very magical pony (or human) that approaches things in a way that makes the academic Twilight want to beat her horn against the wall. It's sort of like how in Erfworld a Mathemancer will utterly fail to understand Hippiemancy.
I'm surprised nobody so far has commented on this special's greatest sin: starting up what sounded like the best Equestria Girls song in years, only to cut it off about forty seconds in. I want the full version, damn it, Hasbro!
...There goes my idea for the Class of EG to have some fun at the Friendship School before heading home.
Best bit of an otherwise, kind of dull and padded feeling special.
As to Sci-Twi's lack of TK control, when she does it as a human we see her using her hands to gesture along with what she's doing, maybe she just has issues without having the motions to help her focus.