Friendship is Card Games: Pony Life, Season 2, Week 2

It’s funny. Because Treehouse rushed out the episodes over the course of about a month, I have access to all of Season 2 of Pony Life. Still going to rotate content while I have it to rotate, but I have quite the backlog for this. Let’s start digging into it.

Close Encounters of the Balloon Kind

Well. That’s a striking title card. It hardly seems fair that Rarity gets to keep her horn when Dash loses her wings.

Going by the deep bass and the purple bulb, I can only assume that the Reapers have indoctrinated a Drifloon.

Ah, Pinkie’s putting those cometary cotton candy crystals to good use.

My God. It’s full of stars. They should’ve sent a poet.

Hmm. The magical transformation loses something when the entire outfit is a chef’s hat and three cooking utensils.

Whoa. That’s… quite the striking image. Especially with the portal right there. This being is very clearly not of this world. (Our first look at it is sans bubbles; much more imposing than the linked image.)

I mean, “cosmic event” seems like a very reasonable guess. Though this may be more paracosmic. (Another universe rather than simply not of this world.)

Existential crises in the face of the enormous and unknown are understandable, but I still expected Dash to charge the thing at Mach 2.

… Okay, this is just repeating the same joke. Are we going to have Pinkie say “Is anypony else X?” many more times?
That said, I do like the various representations of dread for each of the Mane Six. Rarity gets a broken gem, Fluttershy a thundercloud, Twilight atoms, Dash bones, AJ a burning apple, and Pinkie herself gets disintegrated cupcakes.

Turning to the fourth wall as stress-relief. Understandable tactic, Applejack, but you’ve still got to deal with this thing.

Chocolate lava? Haven’t seen that since Codename: Kids Next Door.

Wasn’t expecting a Hamilton reference, but it’s not like Friendship is Magic didn’t pull from the same source. Either way, there are some interesting implications.

You know, given how this Equestria has the Internet, you’d think Twilight would expect the sum total of cosmic knowledge to be in a denser format than books. Ah well, no harm in wishful thinking.

I do appreciate Balloongor criticizing Dash’s name for him.

My God. We’ve truly come full circle. Almost a decade after APPLE.MOV, Applejack finally admits even that she can’t eat all those apples.

Fluttershy is the one telling the others to remain calm in the face of the unknown and not jump to the worst-case scenario. Fluttershy.
… I mean, there are the complaints about her needing to learn this lesson time and time again, but this still feels wrong.

Oh no. Those weren’t bubbles. Those were spawn.

Huh. We’re actually extending a single story past the five-minute mark. Always good to see.

The Tiara of Truth

… Or the ominous floating onion dome in the sky just became part of the new normal? Eh, this is probably just setup.
Hopefully it’s just setup.

Never been the biggest fan of this style, but Rarity’s expressions are fantastic, from skirting the edge of a diabetic coma to the sheer insincerity of her praise.

And then Gummy ate Pinkie’s exploded remnants. Does this happen often?

I do love the furious chocolate Pinkie in the gingerbread cuckoo clock.

That wing lifting competition very clearly did not involve wings in any way.

Angel as the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and the White Rabbit. Efficienter and efficienter.

Huh. That headgear’s the closest we’ve come to Pony Life Diamond Tiara.

Oh, Twilight. “That tiara made Pinkie blurt out one of her innermost secrets! I have to try it on myself!” I may criticize her scientific rigor, but she definitely has the right mindset.

My question is whether Twilight plays Gnomehammer 40,000. With that enormous collection, it’d be a shame not to.

Okay, Dash is less understandable in terms of wanting to wear the object of compelled honesty.

I do appreciate the un-put-down-ability of Daring Do holding across continuities. Especially since this tiara is basically the MacGuffin of “Daring Done?” in hat form.

Fluttershy’s lie isn’t even that shocking. It implicates Angel more than her.

Bearer of Honesty. If she said she forgot it was Thursday with a straight face, she forgot it was Thursday.

Seriously, why do ponies who just lied to Pinkie’s face keeping wanting to wear this thing?

I appreciate Gummy having his own, smaller tub of ice cream so he can join in Pinkie’s binge eating.

… So, yeah, aside from the Tiara being spawned from one of the lesser balloons, we’re just going to ignore the alien entity for an episode. Well then.

Terrorarium

Hmm. Shades of Equestria Girls with this one. Let’s see if the problem stems from an enchanted watering can, no pun intended.

Either the zeppeloids haven’t ranged as far as Sweet Apple Acres, or we’re just not supposed to think about them right now.

Always good to see more Winona.

Applejack confirmed for silly pony. Now she just needs to knock over a fence.

Ah. You’d think after the tiara, the ponies would stop playing with the alien artifacts/possible lifeforms.

Giving a plant a name with a numerical suffix. I’m sure this will end well.

Big Macintosh shaking rather than bucking a tree just feels wrong. Him being the sole source of common sense in Ponyville feels perfect.

Going by that poster in Applejack’s room, Yeehawthorne II is a signing rodeo clown.

So are all these ponies on video chat 24/7?

I do appreciate Rarity saying Applejack was frozen during the still reaction shot. I was worried that was on my end.

I have to appreciate Big Mac walking away from the overgrown plant with nothing more than a put-upon frown. AJ’s made her bed and she’s going to have to lie in it.

I’ve gotten used to the inexplicable giant produce scattered throughout Ponyville, but I have to smile at the Apples building a paddock for their giant apples.

I do have to wonder how the pot is growing along with Hawthorne III. It did appear along with him; very well could be part of his body.

“He’s just a mean green mutation from who-knows-where!”
And he’s bad!

Yeah, four minutes is not enough to establish an “Applejack gets in over her head because she refuses help” plot. Compare and contrast “Applebuck Season.”

So… did the others just have that combat gardening equipment ready to go or what?
Furthermore, is pegasus weather control just not a thing in Pony Life? You have pegasi. The hydrophobic monster is outside. The water balloon ruse isn’t really necessary.

That being said, it is nice to see some action in Pony Life.

Oh. Only after the second mysterious thing spawned from one of those balloons do you conclud there’s something strange about them?
Well, as I said, scientific mindset. Two points is an admittedly lousy data set.

Bubble Trouble

Okay, that’s unfairly adorable.

Girls. Pattern recognition. It’s all I ask.

Well, at least somepony is the voice of reason. Though when it’s Pinkie Pie, you know it’s a bad situation.

And Spike appears for the first time this week just in time to ruin everything. I honestly feel bad for him.

No, Spike. No wand yoink. Yeet that wand this instant!

I appreciate the bug bubble showing up as the setting sun provides a spider web of crepuscular rays.

Well, Spike’s certainly got the technique down.

Okay, whoever wrote “My hoofness!” needs to get smacked with a rolled-up newspaper.

Hmm. Perma-bubbles. If Best Pony doesn’t show up at some point, I’ll be disappointed. Not surprised, but disappointed.

I have to wonder how and why Bubbles the cat ended up in orbit.

Again, when Pinkie is the most concerned person present, something has gone horribly awry.

We already established that the bubbles don’t pop.

Well, that's a striking image.

The Ponk is wise. Listen to her.

“Let me find something sharp,” says the dragon. Putting aside how his teeth are swords and his claws spears, the darn bubble wand is rocking Star Butterfly chic and the five sharp points that that implies.

… Dash was able to tug the bubble along a minute ago. There is now six times the mass and thrice as many wings. Rising like the ponies drank Fizzy Lifting Drinks should not be a problem.

“‘Get held’? I guess I could use a hug. It’s been a while.”
Hug your little brother more often, Twilight. You know, after what shouldn’t be deadly peril.

Interesting to see that the various inexplicable abilities—Pinkie exploding, Fluttershy growing, etc.—are explicitly categorized as magic. At the very least, it’s nice to see them get acknowledged as unusual.

Okay, good to see some acknowledgement of the bubble becoming more powerful.

So… a bubble that feeds on the anxiety of those within. This isn’t even the first time I’ve seen this sort of thing.

The lotus position doesn’t look any more natural on this style of pony.

Some interesting moments with this set, but a lot depends on the characters failing at basic logic or just being willingly dumb. Still, those interesting moments provide plenty to work with. Let’s begin:

Missile Manx 2W
Creature — Cat Rogue
When Missile Manx enters the battlefield, you get EE (two energy counters).
Pay E: Missile Manx gains your choice of flying or first strike until end of turn.
Steely-eyed is a good start. Steely-clawed is even better.
3/1

Ramovian Stateslamb 2W
Creature — Sheep Advisor Rebel
Lifelink
5, T: Search your library for a Rebel permanent card with mana value 4 or less, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle.
“The tyranny of ponies is no better for being unintentional.”
2/2

Gnomic Scholar 3W
Creature — Artificer
Alicorn (This creature is also a Pony Pegasus Unicorn.)
Flying
2W: Create a 1/1 colorless Gnome artifact creature token.
One way or another, every alicorn is driven to gather admirers.
2/3

Tiara of Truth 1U
Artifact
Tiara of Truth enters the battlefield under the control of an opponent of your choice.
Play with your hand and the top card of your library revealed.
2: Target player other than Tiara of Truth’s owner gains control of it. Activate only as a sorcery.

Bubble Bug 2U
Creature — Elemental Insect
U: Return Bubble Bug to its owner’s hand.
“Keeping them from popping is simple. Keeping them from getting carried off by the first stiff breeze? That takes skill.”
—Ditzy Doo
2/3

Bulbous Anomaly 4UU
Creature — Horror
Flying
Bulbous Anomaly can block only creatures with flying.
Whenever a creature you control with flying deals combat damage to a player, create a 1/1 blue Orb creature token with flying and “When this creature dies, you may put a permanent card from your hand onto the battlefield.”
4/3

Unfrost 1B
Instant
Remove up to five counters from among any number of target permanents.
Draw a card.
“What’s so hard about getting a djinn back in the bottle?”
—Pinkie Pie, Bearer of Laughter

Glucose Spike 2B
Sorcery
You gain 1 life. Each opponent loses X life, where X is the amount of life you gained this turn.
Pinkie never formally declared war on the pancreas, but her intent is clear.

Charging Unicorn 2R
Creature — Unicorn Warrior
Haste
Charging Unicorn has first strike as long as it’s attacking.
A unicorn horn is one of the greatest arcane catalysts in the Multiverse. It’s also very pointy.
2/2

Wandgrabber 2R
Creature — Dragon Spellshaper
R, T, Discard a card: Attach target Equipment to target creature. (Control of the Equipment doesn’t change.)
A dragon doesn’t steal. He just redistributes the prizes he’s allowed out of his hoard.
2/2

Chemical Foam G
Instant
You gain 2 life. Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn by creatures with power X or less, where X is the amount of life you gained this turn.
Every chemical reaction has an application somewhere.

Feral Precursor 1G
Creature — Horse
X, Sacrifice Feral Precursor: Search your library for a Pony, Pegasus, or Unicorn creature card with mana value X or less, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle. Activate only if you control a creature with power 4 or greater.
2/2

Marching Sugarcubes 1G
Creature — Elemental Soldier
Whenever a creature you control with power equal to its toughness dies, you gain life equal to that value.
Gyome banned both Quandrix students and extraplanar ingredients from his kitchen for a month.
2/2

Rabbit Hatter 2G
Creature — Rabbit Artificer
Outlast 1G (1G, 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 ward 2. (Whenever it becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, counter it unless that player pays 2.)
2/2

Sucrodile 2GG
Creature — Crocodile
When Sucrodile enters the battlefield, you gain 4 life.
There are few environments stranger or more exotic than Sugarcube Corner.
4/4

Atomic Breakdown 8
Instant
Exile target spell or permanent.
Shove enough mana at any problem and it will stop being a problem.

Dreams to Dust UB
Sorcery
Target player mills eight cards. Exile all cards from that player’s graveyard.
The anomaly brought unfamiliar feelings of fear and dread to Pinkie’s pocket plane.

Hawthrone, Orchard Scourge RG
Legendary Creature — Plant Mutant
Whenever a land you control enters or leaves the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on Hawthorne, Orchard Scourge.
(rg), Sacrifice a land: Hawthrone gains trample until end of turn.
Some weeds are more stubborn than others.
0/1

Scurrying Survivor GU
Creature — Squirrel
Whenever an opponent casts a noncreature spell, you may return Scurrying Survivor to its owner’s hand.
“Animals run from disasters before we, with all our distractions, even notice.”
—Fluttershy, Bearer of Kindness
2/2

Consume the Fallen 1BG
Sorcery
As an additional cost to cast this spell, exile a creature card from your graveyard.
Distribute X +1/+1 counters among any number of target creatures, where X is the power of the exiled card. You gain X life.
Gummy claims anything left on the floor for long enough.

Bury in Apples 1RG
Instant
Bury in Apples deals 3 damage to target creature. When that creature dies this turn, search your library for a basic land card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.
Applejack can be a one-trick pony, but it’s a good trick.

Balloongore, the Destroyer 1UBR
Legendary Creature — Horror
Flying, double strike
Whenever Balloongore, the Destroyer deals combat damage to a player, creatures that player controls get -1/-1 until end of turn.
Pain and suffering are his bread and butter.
2/2

Video Chat 2WU
Sorcery
Each player draws a card for each artifact that player controls.
In an interconnected world, information is freely available to anyone who cares to look for it.

Pinkie’s Chocovenger 2WB
Creature — Pony Assassin
Flash
When Pinkie’s Chocovenger enters the battlefield, destroy target creature that dealt or was dealt damage this turn.
Every tab at Sugarcube Corner gets paid in full.
3/1

Chocolate Eruption 3BR
Sorcery
Chocolate Eruption deals 5 damage to target creature or planeswalker. Excess damage is dealt to that permanent’s controller instead. You gain 5 life.
At that temperature, the flavor doesn’t matter.

Comments

[Thought Prism]

With a name like Glucose Spike, I was expecting a sugar construct shaped like the dragon. Especially given the many actual sugar creatures that got cards.

[Herald of Opera]

Inside Baseball Alert: Ramovian Stateslamb is a proper Rebel in the tradition of Mercadia... Just one of many underwhelming Mercadian traditions.

Inside Baseball Alert: Spellshapers are also Mercadian, but they're remembered quite a bit more fondly. They're named for the fact that they shape whatever happens to be in your hand into an existing spell.

Stupid Complicated Game Alert: Even if a 1/1 dies to Balloongore's triggered ability in the first-strike damage step, it still successfully blocked whatever creature it was blocking (unless it had trample, but blocking a trampler with a 1/1 is usually a waste of time for the same basic reason).

Inside Baseball Alert: This is more for the linked Hamilton blog than this one, but I'd personally just have used "magnocracy" and cited polyamory on the television if called out on it.

[Polychromatic]

It was actually TinyPop, the UK channel, that rushed them out due to superior European broadcasting habits. I assume Treehouse might have caught up somewhat now though.

I'll give comments on the rest of the blog once I'm done suffering through this car sickness.

I think you might understand the context behind the latest Pony Life Behemoth chapter better now. I've had this idea with me ever since I saw these episodes, the similarities are definitely there and I just couldn't pass up the chance given the way I had things set up.

"My Hoofness" is an absolute gem (hehe) of an exclamation and I will not stand this slander against it. Also she'll use it again in the future so you should mentally prepare for that.

I honestly, legitimately burst out laughing when the screen freeze joke happened. It's a wonderful little bit of meta humour, and it's surpringly enhanced when you're watching the episode on your PC (or tablet in my case) after downloading it through a shady link. Not that we'd ever do something like that, right?

Title cards continue to be one of the highlights of Pony Life. One in particular I'll have to talk about if you don't do so yourself, a few weeks from now, it's not anything spectacular visually but it went that extra bit of distance and attention to detail that makes me love this show at times.

Next week (actually next time you cover Pony Life, to be exact) you'll definitely have material to work with. Of the kind you seem to conceptually enjoy, too.

[Powderjaggy]

I have to wonder how and why Bubbles the cat ended up in orbit.

I assumed that was the aftermath of his cute-off against Fluttershy in the first season.

[Herald of Opera]

5515620
Or in other words, Pony Life continues to have better continuity than the main show despite how bass-ackwards that is.

[Polychromatic]

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Bubbles had actually come back from there later on, he first ended up in the Cute Triangle and afterwards was seen in the crowd during the season 1 finale, if I'm not mistaken. It's not impossible that someone sent him into orbit again though. Obviously he's there for the sake of a gag, but knowing him I wouldn't be surprised if someone really did send him there again.

Speaking of continuity though? You have no idea how far Pony Life goes with it sometimes. You'll see two relevant blogs from now.

[Powderjaggy]

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I stand corrected!

[DreadedCandiru2]

It's nonsense like this that makes me think that we're watching a cartoon characters from G5 watch.

[Herald of Opera]

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Or Li'l Cheese's bedtime stories. That's an option people have floated before (and the extra generation covers the technological advancements).