Friendship is Card Games: Sunset Shimmer's Time to Shine! · 12:05pm Aug 14th, 2022
We turn once more to the official novels, and this time it’s a new author. Let’s see what the human world has to offer.
Point of clarity: This is technically the fourth Equestria Girls novel, but the three before it were novelizations of the first two movies and the pre-Rainbow Rocks shorts. Admittedly, it would be interesting to see the official line on how “Perfect Day for Fun” is meant to fit in with the rest of the human world exploits, but I’ve still already reviewed the source material for those books.
The cover is… certainlly interesting. Definitely some elements recalling the she-demon in that outfit. I do have to wonder whether it’s a Rarity original. (And there’s the matter of her skin tone being closer to Big Mac’s. More than a little concerning…)
The blurb on the back has an interesting line: “Back in Equestria, Sunset Shimmer was one of Princess Celestia’s brightest pupils, second only to Twilight Sparkle.” Does that mean when considering all of Celestia’s students over the centuries, or were the two of them enrolled at the same time at some point? It’s an intriguing ambiguity; we’ll see if the story addresses it.
“The hallways of Canterlot High were bustling with students on their way to class.”
Very first sentence of the book and we’re already seeing more class time than some of the movies. 
Fluttershy being nervous about a chemistry test can work. Rainbow Dash reassuring her after their group study session feels a bit bizarre… and yet the text supports it even as I raise that concern.
“It’s all about practice, after all. That’s what counts. We’ve done the drills and we’re ready for the game.”
Yeah, I can’t dispute her having that attitude.
Pinkie’s enthusiastically discussing explosions, and we have a delightful bit of accidental foreshadowing for Legend of Everfree.
After Rarity mentions the group’s actual magic, Fluttershy suggests transforming during the exam. Applejack says “That’s only for special occasions. We all know that.” Compare this to her super strength burning a hole in her proverbial pocket during that one Holidays Unwrapped short. 
I prefer the Applejack who knows there’s a time and a place for magic.
Interesting notes in the review: The narration calls the band the Sonic Rainbooms and claims that the girls grow “long, flouncing tails” when they pony up. It also explicitly says Princess Twilight “left behind a bit of enchantment from the world of magical ponies.” Mind you, Sunset’s still going to feel responsible for it since she’s the one who kicked off the whole process, but still.
Speaking of whom, Sunset doesn’t show up in the book with her name in the title until page 5.
A bit ago, the narration said the first-period bell was about to ring. Now Vice Principal Luna is marching down the hall shouting that it’s time for class like she’s the town crier. I can only assume that someone broke the bell. I choose to blame Trixie. She probably has wire cutters somewhere in her locker.
Uuuuugh. It’s official fiction, so Vinyl is still referred to as “DJ Pon-3.” Despite being a legal minor. I know I’ve made her father Soundwave, but that’s a bit much, even for a Decepticon.
Sunset arrives to the chemistry test fashionably late and incredibly confident, despite missing the group’s study session the night before:
“You just have to memorize the formulas and the reactions and the periodic table and all the elements, and be able to predict reactions, and check your answers, and do all the math without making a mistake. That’s all.”
On the one hand, this feels awfully arrogant for a post-Rainbow Rocks Sunset. On the other, I appreciate the reminder that she’s a genius in her own right.
Ah. A few paragraphs later, Sunset realizes she overdid it and explains that her magic studies in Equestria make high school chemistry pale in comparison. Fair enough.
… Again, ah. Sunset chose not to attend the study session because she personally didn’t need any help, not realizing that that meant she could have helped the others. And she could have helped Pinkie bake cookies. Socialization is still a work in progress for Sunbutt Jr.
Sunset’s moment of insecurity doesn’t stop her from finishing the test well before everyone else, giving her time to reflect on her backstory… which raises a number of questions. I do like how “When she first came to Canterlot High, she had been determined to succeed as a human girl.” Sunset barely even knew what she was, but she was still going to be the best horrific, hairless monster she could be.
But the review follows with “In a matter of weeks” before going over Sunset’s previous exploits up to and including the Battle of the Bands. It’s not clear just how much that one phrase is meant to cover. Probably just Sunset’s rise to the top of CHS’s social hierarchy; there’s a Fall Formal in there, after all. But it still makes me scratch my head and despair at the loose chronology of this setting.
The point of it all is that academic pursuits are no issue for Sunset, but social ones where she actually has to be on even footing with her peer are a lot more challenging. (Also, English is explicitly mentioned as one of her classes, to my mild disgust.) Likewise magical studies in this new world. Sunset’s efforts to study magic have been confounded not just by her lack of a horn but by the sheer number of variables potentially at work in the performance.
“If only someone could help her think about this.”
Someone even more curious than her. Possibly someone purple. Who liked long walks on the beach and…
Sorry, I’ll try to contain myself. 
“If only Twilight Sparkle were here to help her solve this magic puzzle.”
I swear that’s in there. It also serves as a way to introduce the quantum entanglement journal to those unfamiliar with it. The letter to Twilight is certainly interesting, though:
Sometimes I’m a little jealous that you get to come to Canterlot High for magical adventures and I have to be here every day figuring out how to be a real girl and a real friend. When I was studying conjuring and spells with Princess Celestia, I always understood my purpose, but now I don’t know what I’m doing and I don’t really know why I’m here.
For one, I have to wonder about that “real girl” comment. I suppose from Sunset’s perspective, Twilight’s brief time in a human body is just part of the interdimensional tourism package, whereas Sunset herself has to deal with the hassles of humanity on a long-term basis.
For another, her concerns do make sense. For most of Sunset’s life, she’s had a clear goal to pursue: Be the best pupil she can be, become an alicorn, get revenge, earn forgiveness. Now the closest thing she has is “Understand magic in the human world,” and she has no idea where to even begin. For someone so goal-oriented, this kind of aimlessness and ambiguity must be unbearable.
This version of the journal apparently doesn’t light up or vibrate. Sunset just has to check in on occasion to see if there’s a new reply.
Some interesting insight into the girls’ after-school activities: Dash is in sports and Fluttershy helps at the animal shelter, of course, but Rarity helps the drama club with costumes, Applejack’s part of the school paper, and Pinkie’s in everything from glee club to the yearbook committee to the student council. (There’s a thought: unreformed Sunset vs. the Omnipotent Student Government trope.)
Sunset, meanwhile, plans to continue her study of the arcane; there are apparently “books of spells and diagrams and formulas waiting for her at home.” Which she can later show human Twilight and Ahem.
The odd thing is the comment that “that wasn’t something she was talented at the way Rainbow Dash was good at sports or Rarity excelled at fashion.” Really not sure what to make of that.
Flash happens by as the girls mention Twilight, just in time to be disappointed by how she won’t be coming back for a long time.
A recurring theme in this chapter is Sunset saying something, immediately regretting it for fear of appearing arrogant or her friends making fun of her, and those same friends being supportive. I do like this as a sign of Sunset’s still-recovering sense of self-worth and still-limited understanding of positive social interaction. She stopped being afraid of herself at the climax of Rainbow Rocks, but it wasn’t until that of Friendship Games that she truly believed in herself again.
Also, I do have to appreciate Sunset’s continuing struggle to mathematically comprehend the musical magic. The poor wizard can’t wrap her brain around bards.
Pinkie arranges a slumber party—one that isn’t ruined by any jealous little sisters—and includes personalized pillows for each of her friends. But while most of them get decorated with images relevant to their interests, she still doesn’t know Sunset well enough to put on anything other than, well, a shimmering sunset. One more chip in her confidence: “What made her special other than her name? She didn’t know.”
Dash arrives in a funk; the soccer team’s uniforms are getting shabby and there’s no room in the budget for new ones. Morale is an issue, especially with the championship approaching. Sunset suggests a fundraiser, then immediately starts running the numbers for it and settling on a fashion show to show off potential uniforms, giving contributors something concrete from the word “go.” As I said, the girl needs a concrete goal. Though when asked what she can do to help, even after coming up with more supplemental ideas like a concert from the Rainbooms to go along with the fashion show, Sunset stumbles to a halt: “What could she do? She didn’t have any special talents like the other girls.”
This is honestly fascinating to me. Sunset’s cutie mark almost certainly has something to do with magic, which can only leave her feeling more aimless in this disenchanted world. She’s doing everything she can to regain solid footing in what she knows to no avail, but doesn’t know how to branch out from those magic studies to anything else. It’s basically an issue we see with Starlight later on, but without her easy solution of “turn on horn, turn off brain.”
Part of me thinks she should’ve moved past this by now, but in Rainbow Rocks, she really hung on the periphery of the friend group. After all, one of the more notable things about that movie’s shorts was her complete absence from them.
Twilight writes back, encouraging Sunset to explore the magic of friendship. Sunset decides to do some field study of her friends in the hopes of better understanding both them and the powers at their command. And Perdita Finn is still convinced the girls grow tails for some reason.
Reality starts setting in as Principal Celestia tells Sunset that the only availability for such an event this year would be next Friday. Sunset convinces her that it’s more than enough time. (Though I feel “you know how responsible I am as a student. Right?” was asking for a verbal sunburn.)
Sunset tells Dash… and also tries to fit in some magic research at the same time. I think I see where the conflict will come from in this story.
“Sunset pulled out an elaborate wristband from her backpack. ‘Last night I designed a special device to measure your athletic ability—heartbeats per minute, steps taken, reaction times, everything.’”
You know, just threw together a FitBit last night, no big deal. Not like Sunset has any special talents or unique skills that she can bring to the table.
Dash is quite excited by potential future applications of magic, “suddenly imagining goalies diverting balls with a word or being able to run as fast as a pony down the field.”
… Huh. More geode foreshadowing.
Unfortunately, all the displays and numbers going up so enrapture Dash that she isn’t actually paying attention to the practice game itself. And her teammates, nameless though they may be, aren’t happy about it.
Rarity is next on Sunset’s list of friends to help/use as research subjects, and she admits that getting sample uniforms in a week will be a bit of a crunch, though still doable. Sunset wants to take photos of the studio; one of her theories is that magic is somehow tied to color.
I could absolutely make a card game joke here, but it seems too easy.
In another display of casual expertise, Sunset has written a camera app that captures and highlights wavelengths outside of the visible spectrum, in the hopes that that magic can be seen beyond the normal rainbow. But in a moment of truly Starlit genius, she then decides to crowdsource the color-distorted photos of the designs her friend is working on, uploading them to the Rainbooms’ site to get fans to chip in and see if they can find evidence of the supernatural.
This isn’t so much galaxy brain as it is galactic core black hole brain.
Sure enough, within moments of Sunset proudly reporting her progress to Princess Twilight and racing off to help the next friend, Rarity starts getting bombarded with texts concerned over the looks of both her and her designs in the least flattering filter ever, forcing her to stop work on the uniforms to run PR damage control.
Next is Applejack, who’s working on the event’s bake sale component. Well, fry sale. She is making donuts. Sunset insists that magic could be finding its way into the treats… and proceeds to attach sensors to anything and everything in the kitchen, to disastrous effect.
Analyzing the data that night turns up nothing notable. Twilight tells Sunset that magic is sometimes in the places we least expect… which leads Sunset to conclude that Fluttershy is actually an incredibly powerful spellcaster without knowing it. According to Sunset, “It made sense, really, that with her incredible love of animals she would have the most access to Equestrian magic.” I see we’re going by a loose definition of “sense.”
But it’s not just the hunt for phenomenal cosmic power that’s driving Sunset. If she helps Fluttershy harness that power, she thinks “Fluttershy would admire her as a magic investigator—and be grateful to have her as a friend.” Poor Sunset still doesn’t think she’s earned the others’ friendship. Certainly not the one she bullied the most relentlessly.
Fluttershy definitely has some kind of potent force at her command, because she manages to get Sunset to take her focus away from her research for a time. “Magic could wait when there were kittens to pet.”
Indeed, Fluttershy does something no one else really has with Sunset, save perhaps Twilight Sparkle: She asks about Sunset’s life in Equestria. (Personally, I’d be incurably curious about my friend’s history in another universe, but this is part of why I ship Sciset in the first place.) The really interesting bit is that Sunset was apparently “focused on figuring out the secrets of Celestia’s magic so she could be the supreme ruler of the pony world.” Which honestlly meshes well with her comic backstory.
“I know that when my rescues come in, it can take a while for them to get used to being here.”
I honestly love this. It says so much about how this Fluttershy sees the world and Sunset in particular. It’s a lovely moment… and then Fluttershy pulls out a dog whistle and Sunset becomes convinced that ultrasonic frequencies are a sign of great and terrible magic. 
And then, distracted by her thoughts of experiments to come, Sunset leaves the doors of the animal shelter open as she leaves. I’m not sure how to feel about this absent-minded researcher Sunset, but I do still appreciate the motivation behind it. Aside from the need to earn her friends’ approval, she’s also concerned about being prepared for the next magical threat that may crop up.
Pinkie’s decorating the audiotorium, and Sunset decides it’s easier to ask her to play the drums than try to explain magical equations to her. (Which is a shame, because Pinkie would probably point out that Sunset forgot an exponent somewhere, or is using the wrong value for a fundamental constant.)
And then everything comes to a head. All of the issues raised by Sunset’s ongoing study, including the entire population of the animal shelter escaping, come to roost at once. All while Principal Celestia demands to know what the heck is happening to her school.
Oh, and they need to have the fashion show ready by tomorrow night.
Sunset all but smacks herself in the head as she realizes she’s been so focused on the “magic” part that she completely forgot the “of friendship.” Her friends laugh off her apology, but she still writes to Twilight in tears over the chaos she’s sown. Twilight gently reminds her she’s meant to be learning friendship from her friends… and I can’t help but think Twilight may have words in mind for those friends, given that she trusted them with Sunset’s reformation.
Twilight trusting her five best friends with friendship education didn’t turn out as she’d hoped. Huh. Echoes of things to come. 
Twilight says Sunset can consider her a personal friendship tutor… and I honestly thought they had that arrangement already. Still, there are more important things to focus on. Sunset has a big mess to fix and less than two days to do it.
First up are the animals, and though most people are calling out to them, Fluttershy encourages Sunset to instead listen. That lets her find the missing kittens and puppies, and a handy can of pet food that Fluttershy apparently keeps on her person at all times coaxes them out of their hiding place.
Between Sunset trying to put herself in the lost animal’s shoes and Fluttershy talking to (though not with) those animals, we get yet more geode foreshadowing. This book came out months before Friendship Games, much less Legend of Everfree, so I’m not sure how many of the connections I’m seeing are post hoc rationalization, but it’s still fascinating.
Making up with Applejack mostly involves letting AJ vent, then following her instructions. “In a kitchen, the head chef is God” isn’t quite a friendship lesson, but it’s still a valuable one.
Also, Sunset’s next destination is Rarity and Applejack asks to tag along. For purely platonic reasons, I’m sure.
Rarity’s confidence is still shaken, but Sunset gets inspiration from the Pinkie pillows from the slumbe party and offers an idea get through the paradox of personal expression in a uniform… by basically reinventing cutie marks. What else can you call putting on a decal of a personally significant design to show your uniqueness? (Never mind the matter of people doing that on their clothing; I’ve done plenty of exploration there.)
Sunset also designs an app to show students how they’ll look in the uniforms in the space of a single paragraph. Must be nice… (And in a lovely touch, the biometric data she got fro mRainbow Dash played a major part… somehow.) She also takes away the smartwatch from Dash for everyone’s sake.
“Sometimes investigating something was a surefire way to ruin it, and Sunset Shimmer realized that maybe learning about friendship meant being a good friend and not experimenting with it.”
Yeah, anything that calls itself a “social experiment” generally isn’t a good idea. I’m all for research, but I can acknowledge there’s a time and a place for it.
Pinkie turns her advertising skills up to 11, including “a TV monitor set up showing one of the Sonic Rainbooms’ (sic) sell-out performances.” Which may actually answer some questions about Sunset’s income…
But it’s to no avail. No one seems interested. Yet, as Pinkie notes, “Nothing else is scheduled for tonight. I don’t even think there are any parties. Believe me, if there were, I would know.”
The Ministry of Morale reminds you that Pinkie Pie is watching you. Forever.
Applejack suspects Trixie might be running a smear campaign against the event, but Sunset sees that the rumor mill is churning around them. About her. All the havoc she’s wreaked in the past few days has people wondering if she’s gone back to her old ways, and they’re afraid of what she has planned for this big event she threw together on such short notice. One even claims she called the Dazzlings back to take over the school.
Sunset apologizes… with a bizarre aside in the middle of it: “I’m not a pony anymore, and every time I try to be a real girl, I mess it up.” The heck does “real girl” even mean in this context? Struggling to fit in with humanity, sure, but what makes humans any more “real” than ponies? To say nothing of Sunset completely forswearing her history as a unicorn when the option to go back is now easier than ever before.
Also, Sunset never bothered composing a new song but promises to compose an irresistible hit once she has a few minutes free. Her ludicrous artistic and technical capabilities are honestly hilarious.
Inspired by Pinkie’s unrelenting optimism, Sunset sets out to prove that Canterlot High has nothing to fear from her. She rules out a big spectacle proclaiming her benevolence to the school, believing everyone will dismiss it as part of the scheme. Instead, she just takes advantage of every opportunity the rest of the day offers to help someone else.
First, this means helping someone pick up after their locker dumps out a pile of papers. Then Sunset finds Trixie crying by herself in a stairwell. Trixie admits she started the rumors now circulating through the school in the hopes that by breaking Sunset out of her current social circle, the two of them could be friends. (And now I’m wondering what happened to her bandmates. Or even Snips and Snails.) To her credit, Sunset gets Trixie involved with the big event. Selling tickets, but still.
Even Flash gets a scene, Sunset gently offering some guidance with math while he offers a few songwriting tips in exchange. (Specifically “Just have fun,” but as Flash notes, Pinkie’s usually right about this kind of thing.) Twilight elaborates on it, and Sunset’s ready to go by the time Dash joins her in the audiotorium.
Dash then reassures Sunset. If I may speak frankly, she does so with more emotional intelligence than I’d believe she had if she didn’t couch most of her wisdom in sports metaphors.
Also, between Pinkie and Trixie, the student body basically had no choice but to make the show a sold-out affair.
Sunset spends the next hour as a general gofer, doing whatever needs doing to get everything ready. She checks her journal and sees a heartwarming letter from Twilight. Presumably she’s been keeping Twilight caught up on everything. (I have to assume this is happening during one of the Cutie Map missions where Twillight was sulking in Namepending Castle with nothing better to do. Not that she isn’t invested in Sunset’s well-being, but the mental image amuses me.)
“[Sunset] hoped that someday she could be as helpful to someone else as the Princess of Friendship had been to her.”
Oh, she’ll definitely have the chance to pay it forward. And sooner than she thinks.
Vinyl has gone from not wanting anything to do with this event to DJing for it. I don’t think they even had a booth ready for her; one may just appear when she wants to do a set.
Everything goes better than expected; not only do they easily make enough for a fresh set of uniforms, the animal parade Fluttershy and Rarity set up with little replicas of the various uniforms inspires the soccer team to perform a flurry of adoptions. (Let’s just hope this doesn’t end in a bunch of abandoned cats in six months. 
)
Sunset’s song literally sings the praises of each of her friends (and herself.) It’s a lovely moment, made the better by the tiny, magical rainbows raining like confetti as the song reaches its peak. This never gets an explanation, but the whole point of the story is to not look a miracle in the mouth, so
That said, Sunset does wonder about them herself, especially as they keep showing up during especially fun moments with her friends. Twilight cautions her not to go overboard, but as Sunset notes, there’s nothing wrong with being curious. It’s not like tampering with what she doesn’t understand could have catastrophic consequences for both her sanity and the integrity of space-time.
No, she doesn’t actually say that last sentence.
In all, this is a fascinating study of a Sunset in transition, going from well-intentioned but uncertain to genuinely helpful. It feels like something we might have gotten if Equestria Girls had gotten half-hour specials at this point in its lifespan. As I noted, there are definitely elements of Starlight Glimmer’s missteps here, but Sunset shows a much better track record for remorse, fixing the problems she caused, and learning from them. If nothing else, I may employ her much more inquisitive, analytical mindset in future stories… or at least use this book to justify that attitude, since I was going to do it anyway.
Now, let’s see what I did for this assignment:
Word of Warding W
Instant
Choose one —
• Target creature can block any number of creatures this turn.
• Prevent all damage that would be dealt to target creature this turn.
Entwine 3 (Choose both if you pay the entwine cost.)
Twilight’s Student 1W
Creature — Human Bard
Finale — When you sacrifice a Song, transform Twilight’s Student.
From the moment she earned her wings, Twilight helped others along the path that led to them.
2/2
Resonant Chorus
(W) Creature — Human Pony Bard
Finale — Whenever a sacrifice a Song, choose up to three target creatures and/or Songs. For each of those permanents, put your choice of a +1/+1 counter or a verse counter on it.
Thus did the magic of friendship spread through the Multiverse.
3/3
Apple Family Journalist 1WW
Creature — Human Citizen
When Apple Family Journalist enters the battlefield, draw a card. If each opponent has more cards in hand than you, draw two cards instead.
All the news that’s fit to plant.
2/2
Distracting Display 2W
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature an opponent controls
Enchanted creature can’t attack or block.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you and enchanted creature’s controller each draw a card.
Everything you wanted to know, or didn’t, or shouldn’t.
Check-In Charlatan 1U
Creature — Human Performer
Whenever a nontoken creature enters the battlefield under an opponent’s control, that player may pay 1. If they don’t, you get TK (a ticket counter).
When Check-In Charlatan dies, you may put a sticker on a nonland permanent you own.
1/1
Intrusive Study 1U
Instant
Draw a card. Counter target noncreature spell unless its controller pays 1 for each card you’ve drawn this turn.
Sunset saw much of herself in the human Twilight. Especially her mistakes.
Thaumic Investigator 1UU
Creature — Human Wizard
Instant and sorcery spells cost 1 less to cast.
Whenever an opponent casts an instant or sorcery spell, you may draw a card.
“We’re getting a lot of data. Just watch where you’re pointing that lightning.”
2/2
Personal Epiphany 2U
Instant
Until end of turn, target creature you control gains flying and has base power and toughness X/X, where X is the number of cards in your hand plus the number of foretold cards you own.
Foretell U (During your turn, you may pay 2 and exile this card from your hand face down. Cast it on a later turn for its foretell cost.)
Thirst for Supremacy 2U
Instant
Draw three cards. If an opponent has more cards in hand than you, discard a card. Otherwise, discard two cards.
Every step Sunset took brought her no closer to Celestia’s might.
Ingenious Replicator 4U
Creature — Human Spellshaper
3, T, Discard a card: Create a token that’s a copy of target artifact.
“The components know what we expect of them. I just help arrange them into the form best suited for the task.”
3/3
Vicious Slander 2B
Instant
Target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn for each other creature on the battlefield.
Be it pony capitol or human high school, Canterlot is more full of rumors than air.
Compounded Errors 3B
Sorcery
Kicker 1U (You may pay an additional 1U as you cast this spell.)
If this spell was kicked, target player mills six cards. That player loses life equal to half the number of cards in their graveyard, rounded down. (They lose life even if this spell wasn’t kicked.)
Smiling Surveillance 3B
Sorcery
Each opponent reveals their hand. Choose a card from each of those hands. Each chosen card’s owner discards it.
Some people have a finger on the pulse of their community. Pinkie Pie has a stranglehold.
Sickly Glow 3BB
Sorcery
Nonartifact creatures get -1/-1 until end of turn for each artifact you control.
“We don’t talk about the Uranium Incident.”
—Twilight Sparkle
Chemical Expertise 1R
Sorcery
Multikicker 1R (You may pay an additional 1R any number of times as you cast this spell.)
If a red source you control would deal damage to a permanent or player this turn, it deals that much damage plus X to that permanent or player instead, where X is 1 plus the number of times this spell was kicked. Chemical Expertise deals 1 damage to each opponent.
Distractible Forerunner 1R
Creature — Human Scout
Haste
Distractible Forerunner can’t attack unless you have one or fewer cards in hand.
In a less connected era, she’d be unstoppable. She still is if kept from her social media feeds.
3/3
Study Party 2R
Sorcery
Each player may discard a card. Each player who does draws a card. Then you draw a card for each player who discarded a card this way.
Test prep was secondary to everyone having a good time.
Power Forward 2RR
Creature — Human Warrior
When Power Forward enters the battlefield, create two 1/1 white Human creature tokens.
Humans you control have haste.
Rainbow Dash’s soccer formations are more devastating than some Equestrian battle tactics.
2/2
Font of Inspiration G
Sorcery
Look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal a legendary card, a land card, or a Song card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. If you didn’t put a card into your hand this way, draw a card.
Outrageous Claim G
Sorcery
Each player chooses a permanent card name, then reveals the top card of their library. Each player who revealed a card with the name they chose this way puts it onto the battlefield.
Draw a card.
Outrageous evidence optional.
Diverse Perspectives 3G
Sorcery
Demonstrate (When you cast this spell, you may copy it. If you do, choose an opponent to also copy it.)
Draw a card for each different mana value among creatures you control.
“Whatever I need, there’s a friend for that.”
—Sunset Shimmer
Silent Witness 3G
Creature — Human Druid
As long as you have five or more cards in your hand, you may cast creature spells as though they had flash.
At the beginning of your end step, if you didn’t cast a spell this turn, draw a card.
She sits patiently, content to watch nature unveil itself in its own time.
2/4
Mixed Litter 4GG
Sorcery
Create three green creature tokens in any combination of 2/2 Cats with haste and/or 3/1 Dogs with vigilance.
“I’m sure you can’t wait to meet your new friends.”
—Fluttershy
Goal Squad 6G
Creature — Human Warrior
Assist (Another player can pay up to 6 of this spell’s cost.)
Goal Squad can’t be blocked by creatures with power 2 or less.
Canterlot High’s sports teams are practically forces of nature in their own right.
6/5
Stylish Uniform 2
Artifact — Equipment
Each creature you control that shares a creature type with equipped creature gets +1/+1.
Equip 1
“You don’t have to look awesome to play awesome, but it helps.”
—Rainbow Dash
Close-Knit Band 1RG
Creature — Human Bard
Whenever you cast a multicolored spell, create a Treasure token. (It’s an artifact with “T, Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color.”)
Friendship is the real reward, but gold isn’t bad either.
3/3
Sunset Steals the Crown 2BR
Enchantment — Saga
(When this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter.)
I — Gain control of target artifact or creature until this Saga leaves the battlefield. Untap it. It gains haste until end of turn.
II — Target creature gets +3/+0 and gains menace and lifelink until end of turn.
III — Exile this Saga, then return it to the battlefield transformed under your control.
Echoes of the She-Demon
(BR) Enchantment Creature — Demon
Flying, trample
When Echoes of the She-Demon enters the battlefield, destroy target artifact or creature. That permanent’s controller loses life equal to its mana value.
The dark whispers in Sunset’s mind never let her forget her greatest failure.
3/3
Crowdsourcer 3GW
Creature — Human Advisor
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.)
Spells you cast have convoke.
Many fans make light work.
2/3
Solar Conjuration XR(rw)W
Sorcery
Convoke
Create an X/1 red and white Elemental creature token with flying, trample, lifelink, and haste. Sacrifice it at the beginning of the next end step.
TBH, the novel sounds a bit muddled. I guess that comes from Sunset still being a relatively new character at the time, and them trying to get a handle on her.
For whatever reason, perhaps because I never had any intention of reading this book or the other EqG ones (whereas I do to intend with the chapter books I haven't read, at least the ones you've covered thus far), I read the whole blog here. Honestly, if my experience reading your FiCG blog on the first Twilight Sparkle chapter book is any indication, this was more enjoyable then reading the book would be. Though this does feel a lot better. Naturally, because there's so little EqG for this point in the timeline and in Sunset's growth, it feels like it's actually showing us useful stuff, rather then being trivial character-backsliding stories as has been the case with nearly all FiM chapter books.
And while I don't doubt the overtly-simple prose, plain telly style and lack of finesse in the writing would make it feels rather bare to read, as going by your summary, and the flow doesn't seem all that secure, hardly anything in terms of character and incident therein leaps out as obviously wrong, and it feels like a reasonable expansion on Sunset's feelings and such at this point. Only thing that actively annoyed was the repeated instances of making an app or such out of nowhere for this specific function; even if that kind of "these kids can do anything the plot needs" stuff is present in EqG, and annoyingly so, it's kept somewhat grounded, not this level of fancy.
Regardless, while most of the EqG cast are basically ciphers, Sunset is legit, and this not only feels true to her, but expands in a natural way. At least in terms of analysing what happens in the story. Not bad!
Elements of Glimmer, Elements of early Twilight. Same thing really. Very fun read
Stupid Complicated Game Alert: Yes, Thaumic Investigator reduces the cost of instants and sorceries for all players and not just you. Read its other ability for why that isn't necessarily a bad thing. (And if you happen to draw a counterspell that way, you can use it on the spell that triggered that draw.)
Stupid Complicated Game Alert: By the time it's resolving, Personal Epiphany has already been moved to the stack rather than being in your hand or foretold. This can potentially kill the target as a state-based action if you aren't paying attention, and you can't target your opponent's creatures with it unless you've already mind-controlled them into doing your bidding.
You talk about the mentions of tails like it's somehow a bad thing.
5679670
The only actual issue is the inconsistency... and it's a valid point that worrying about that would only ensure that you'd never have time for anything else.
I suspect when Sunset means "real girl" she means a non-magical, standard humam being.
Lol "There's an App / Pony for that" ref.
https://mlp.fandom.com/wiki/There%27s_a_Pony_For_That
This gave me the idea for a fic where Sunset ends up at Crystal Prep and gets a target on her back for wrecking the grade curve (sure Twilight is already there, but maybe they take different classes).
Hey! What did Marble ever do to make you say such a mean— oh, you weren't talking about her.
Maybe the tails were concealed by their skirts. How closely were you looking at the high schoolers' rear ends?
An interesting potential bit of character development for Sunset, except once human Twilight was introduced to the Equestria Girls world, she was the abnormally gifted mechanical engineer, so Sunset never had the chance to become that.
Easy for you. I wouldn't have gotten it if I hadn't been reading these blogs.
I'll give you her bandmates (although maybe she just paid them to be her backup band?), but Snips and Snails I understand. Assuming that Trixie is a senior and Snips and Snails are freshmen (really, they should be younger, but gotta get all the characters in the same high school), it's weird for people from those two grades to form close friendships.
I've said it before, but even if they don't know what a "ship" is they sure do ship these 2 hard.
Intrusive study seems really really powerful for just 1U.
I never actually read this one. I got confused by the EQG books, seeing that some-but-not-all were novelizations of the movies and being unclear which was what, and also noting that these had a different author than Berrow that left past-me unsure if they were equally canon. A dumb objection, in hindsight.
I am long overdue on actually responding to FiCG comments in a timely manner, for which I apologize. Let's try to fix that:
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Honestly, it's one of the better reads I've experienced in official pony literature. Low bar, but it still cleared it. My summary isn't helping, since I was focused more on analyzing the bits that interested me than providing a coherent plot synopsis.
(But yes, Sunset having technical skills as the plot demanded was a lazy shortcut. It's one thing for the text to establish those capabilities. It's another for said capabilities to be remotely reasonable to begin with.)
5679657
"Skylight Lightverb, the unicorn with no friends" is an FiM archetype, after all.
5679670
As 5679675 noted, the inconsistency is the only part that bothers me. I'd be fine with the girls mutating into nightmarish unions of horse and ape if that were supported by the primary source material.
... Explicitly supported by the primary source material.
5679679
Categorizing that as "real" still feels very weird when coming from a unicorn, even if that's not her current body. Authorial anthrochauvinism or editors paring down the complexities of species dysphoria? You, the viewer decide!
5679709
The question is whether this is a "Sunset transfers to Crystal Prep in the wake of Anon-a-Miss" scenario or if she started going there pre-reformation. The end result for the rest of the student body turns out very differently depending on that.
5679734
There is no correct answer to this question.
Depends on how much of the equipment in "The Science of Magic" Sunset built herself. Going by the use of at least one colander, I'm going to say a nonzero quantity of it.
But yes, it is a shame that we never got a good scene of those two working together for science. Which is why I've taken it upon myself to write several of them.
5679749
I'd argue they ship them with other characters even harder. Rollercoaster of Friendship was basically Rarijack: the Movie.
5679763
Yeah, that's definitely pushing the envelope.
5679907
Everything is canon until it isn't, whether because something contradicts it or because you don't want it to be.
5679929
I'm assuming that's not counting the comic books, right? For even as inconsistent and all over the place as they are, with over 200 of them and a decent amount that work, I have to imagine that wouldn't be "one of the better ones" if account for however many worthwhile ones there. Unless you're judging it in the realm of a character story, which might be more fair as most of the comics, and nearly all the best ones, aren't concerned with a character arc/growth (not beyond an issue-specific thing, anyway), and more with being a goofy lark. Usually. I've only read most issues once.
I think most of us are used to parsing your summaries-that-prioritising-jokey-asides and getting a decent idea of how it works, even for the works we haven't read. I know I do, anyway. Heck, I'd argue our brains (well, mine, anyway) fill in the gaps with a better flow and pace then the actual book has when read. As said before, I read the first chapter book for Twilight only after your FiCG blog on it, and your blog was the better experience for that reason. I always think of this is my head as Script Not Plussed Syndrome (not a very creative term, I know), after when reading the script of something is a better experience then watching it, because as you read it, your brain fills in better production values, pacing, voice acting, etc. then the final product is actually in possession of to boost the written material's effect.
5679934
Oh, there are definitely MLP comic books that blow this out of the water. I'm just considering the other chapter books.
5679929
Be the change you want to see in the world.
While it sounds like it still has a few of the usual oddities we always see in the official books, this one seems really interesting from a character perspective. I wish the expanded universe did a lot more with Sunset.
Now that you mention it, I'm curious about this too. Can anyone who's read it fill us in?
5680163
Twilight (the Princess one) just dreamed up the trip to the carnival.
5681064
Huh. Not the answer I expected. But thank you for answering nonetheless.
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For anyone who's interested in how the Twilight situation in the shorts were handled by the novel, here's a few copy/pastes from the first Rainbow Rocks novel (There's 2 of them: this one was just the shorts and "The Mane Event" was the movie itself).
This is the opening scene:
Then the novel switches to EqG Rarity getting ready for "Canterlot High’s Spring Carnival" and covers the events of the "Perfect Day for Fun" short. The girls are singing the song (with altered lyrics) but no mention of Twilight. Vinyl Scratch (named DJ Pon-3) hears them and texts Rainbow suggesting they form a band for The Spring Fling.
The scene ends with them all in the photo booth and shifts back to Princess Twilight.
Apparently those wings made her psychic.
Chapter 16 covers the "Shake Your Tail" short (though it's titled "Music to Our Ears" which is almost the title of Vinyl's short. By this point, the girls all have their instruments and a number of songs, they just need to pick a theme and decorate the gym. As in the short, they all have different ideas, but there's no Twilight here. Instead, we get this:
And also:
For the end of the novel, we head back to Equestria for another scene with Princess Twilight:
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lh6.googleusercontent.com/VmGPuDoeMoMpKXatEiEIrUqymONs6RLUAs-TLVp357VhaeDzzZj4pmQCI-kq9kfC98K8UdueoG-H5Z4KAtHYh8rNQSmMXZbNwl2sLpPAnkfa99bKMW8aqBzphWrjWY250PGGa4FciWwf6j0MWjlzqxI
Well okay then. Very interesting. Thank you.