Friendship is Card Games: Classics Reimagined: Little Fillies #3 & #4 · 1:12pm Feb 12th, 2023
We return to one of the more unusual pony comic sidelines, the miniseries adapting Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women using the G4 cast. Clearly the most appropriate content I could cover on Super Bowl Sunday. 
Let’s see where this goes from here:
Issue #3
I do appreciate how the characterization shines through from the very first panel: Twilight-as-Meg trying to maintain order, Fluttershy-as-Beth paying more attention to the birds outside, Rarity-as-Amy focused on a dress, and Dash-as-Jo playing paper football with Applejack-as-Laurie.
(It also provides a great way to review who’s who. )
We also start leaning on the fourth wall immediately with Rari-Amy’s comment about not needing to worry about a monthly release schedule.
The fillies’ dreams are precisely what you’d expect for their actresses, save for Rainjo wanting to be a novelist rather than a pro athlete.
The mailbox gift exchange is a lovely touch… though I do wonder how they’re going to reconcile this sort of thing with how Laurie ends up marrying Amy in the original novel.
“Ooooh! A plot device!”
Pinkie as Marmee may be one of the best parts of this whole adaptation.
So. Rather than Marmee getting called away to nurse Mr. March back to health from a bad case of pneumonia, Cheese Sandwich is calling in Pinkie to help with de-escalating the war between Diamond Dogs and Abyssinians. Complete with a dream sequence of a documentary of her deeds and getting “a pretty famous parody singer to play [her] husband.”
Seriously, this mini-series is amazing, though not for any of the reasons I might have expected. Such as Pinkie’s insistence that cupcakes cover all the basic food groups: “Sugar, frosting, cake, sprinkles, and more sugar.”)
Unfortunately, the Marches’ emergency funds are currently at zero, so Rainjo… sells the color out of her mane. Which is apparently a thing she can do. Between that and Marmee’s gushing, I have a number of questions and a good amount of laughter.
Rainjo wakes up in the night, sobbing over her lost color… and Fluttershy calls in Discord to fix Dash’s mane. He doesn’t approve of a deus ex machina being used on anyone but him, but she did ask nicely.
Without Marmee’s organized chaos, the house is in shambles, so nopony’s able to help Flutterbeth go help the animals on the Laurence estate with the flood caused by the ongoing storm. She provides disaster relief… but is sneezing by the time she gets back inside.
In the original novel, Beth ends up with scarlet fever after helping a poor family who loses three children to the disease. She never fully recovers and eventually succumbs in part two of the book. Discord, as a doctor, pronounces Flutterbeth dead… tired and, given that fate, recommends removing her from the narrative entirely for her own good. “She enjoys a nice beach vacation and our readers are spared intense emotional damage. Everypony wins!”
This still leaves Rainjo on the front porch reflecting on how everything’s changing when Applelaurie comes by to congratulate her on being a published author. (Jo would’ve announced it as a surprise, but Flutterbeth’s sickness but a damper on that.) Laurie tries to bring up the agronomics program at Appleoosa as a way to ask Jo to come with her, but Discord as Aunt March interrupts and faints away at seeing the dusty, cobweb-laden state of the house.
The conversation comes back to what the girls will be doing with their lives, complete with Aunt Discord noting that we already did ten seasons of Twimeg’s plan of magic, friendship, and the magic of friendship. She instead extends the offer of being her travel companion to Amy. (In the book, it’s because Jo already had scarlet fever and could tend to Beth without fear of contracting it. Here, it’s because she hates having to discuss her future plans. Also, the tour is of Equestria here rather than Europe.)
Rainjo storms into her room, prepares quill and journal… and has to contend with writer’s block. Given how hard it is to write with everything going on, her phantasmal OC suggests writing about all of it. This gives her something to show to the Broncord Gazette… and Discord, the editor gives her considerable notes and a week to apply them. The pain is real.
She commiserates with Applelaurie… who’s leaving some going-away presents in the mailbox, since she’s leaving for the Appleoosa program. She extends the offer for Rainjo to join her, but it’s just not her thing. We close the issue with Jo looking wistfully at her best friend leaving her behind.
Issue #4
In a wonderful symbol of her hesitance to move on from what had once been comfortable state of affairs, Rainjo is the only member of the Ponyville Club left, with various substitutes for the other members. Rarely a good sign.
I do have to appreciate the diarchs’ expressions in the panel with Twimeg. Luna is clearly displeased that Celestia has brought this nuisance upon them.
I also love Marmee interrupting the montage to express concern over her daughter talking to inanimate objects. She has firsthoof experience with that sort of thing, after all.
The story tries to stay with the original plotline, wherein Jo becomes the governess for the two children of one of Marmee’s friends… except here, there a half a dozen of them. And they’re the Student Six. And the friend is, once again, played by Discord. Still, she sticks with it, and the change of pace does do her good.
In the process, she literally runs facefirst into A. K. Yearling and is humiliated to see that her favorite author is holding one of the pages she’s writing for a sensationalist newspaper, The Weekly Volcano. Yearling assures her that she used to write for the rag herself, back when “all they wanted were horror stories like Steven Prince’s.”
The interesting thing is that this seems to slot Yearling in as Professor Bhaer, Jo’s fellow border and German tutor who she’d go on to marry.
Rainjo is astonished to see so many props from the various Daring Do novels, from the Griffon’s Goblet to the Sapphire Statue to… the Book of the Dead? 
Let’s, uh, let’s hope these are just props.
“A lot of good can come from writing the truth.”
Ah. Well then. Rainjo is similarly shocked, since this is Yearling’s response to a request for writing advice, and this is the younger author’s first time out of Broncord. But Yearling assures her that it’s not the scale of the adventure that matters. It’s about writing what’s real enough to scare you. Legitimately good stuff on how no experience and no person is too small or great to matter.
Aunt March is less than impressed by Rainjo’s late arrival for Applelaurie’s graduation party, but everypony else is thrilled to see her again. (And we get a cutaway to Flutterbeth on the beach, with ever more animals in sunglasses joining her.) And even Aunt March leaves her the estate of Plumfield, which she happily offers to Twimeg as a potential site for her school.
Rari-Amy is the proud owner of the Carousel Boutique, newly opened in Broncord, and a stark deviation from marrying Laurie… who’s notably missing at her own graduation party. As in the first issue, Rainjo finds her lurking away from the main festivities, and the two of them sneak out for one last adventure in the theater of the mind.
Amazingly, the story takes the liberties it’s taken with the source material and spins them into a moral about not being afraid to tell your own tale. And honestly? It works. Also, lovely touch with one Discord role getting played by a plushie once another appears onscreen at the same time.
And we close with a lovely montage, a shot of Rainjo applying the finishing touches on Little Fillies, the novel, and her looking proudly at the camera. (And all romantic prospects have been left uncertain.)
In all, this has been a delightfully bizarre experience in both fiction and metafiction. I’m sincerely looking forward to any other Classics Reimagined mini-series they may have planned.
Now, let’s see how I can apply my own interpretation…
Write Out W
Sorcery
Exile target creature. Its controller may draw a card.
“I’ve read ahead. Trust me, you’ll enjoy this a lot more than what’s waiting for you.”
—Discord
Advanced Applenomics 1W
Sorcery — Lesson
For each player who controls more lands than you, search your library for a land card with a basic land type. Reveal those cards, put them into your hand, then shuffle.
The Appleoosa program may be highly specialized, but it’s still the best in the nation.
Literary Tutor 1WW
Sorcery
Search your library for a historic card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle. (Artifacts, legendaries, and Sagas are historic.)
“Other stories can inspire you, but in the end, you have to write your own.”
—A. K. Yearling
Intrepid Duo 4W
Creature — Pony Scout
Double strike
When Intrepid Duo enters the battlefield, it explores. (Reveal the top card of your library. Put that card into your hand if it's a land. Otherwise, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature, then put the card back or put it into your graveyard.)
2/2
Lagoon Merpony 1U
Creature — Pony Merfolk Advisor
Whenever Lagoon Merpony becomes tapped, scry 1.
Seaponies practice a wide variety of divinations, from sardine augury to consulting the octoprophets. Only when all bode well do they reveal themselves to landtrotters.
2/1
Based on a True Story 2UU
Sorcery
Create a token that’s a copy of target nonland permanent, except if the token is a Saga, it has read ahead. (Choose a chapter and start with that many lore counters. Skipped chapters don’t trigger.)
Scriptwriters can never resist punching things up a little.
Chroma Collector 4U
Creature — Pony Citizen
When Chroma Collector enters the battlefield, you may put a grayscale counter on target creature you control. If you do, draw a card for each of that creature’s colors, then it becomes colorless for as long as it has a grayscale counter on it.
One way or another, everything’s for sale.
2/2
Attic Rat 1B
Creature — Rat
When Attic Rat dies, target opponent puts a card in their hand on top of their library.
Beth assured her sisters that if they didn’t bother the rats, the rats wouldn’t bother them.
2/1
Bearer of Bad News 2B
Creature — Chimera Citizen
When Bearer of Bad News enters the battlefield, choose one —
• Each player discards a card.
• Each player sacrifices a creature.
“I hate it just as much as you do.”
3/1
Magus of the Grimoire 2BB
Creature — Pony Wizard
1, T, Discard a card: Put a study counter on Magus of the Grimoire.
T, Remove three study counters from Magus of the Grimoire and sacrifice it: Put all other creature cards from all graveyards onto the battlefield under your control. They’re black Zombies in addition to their other colors and types.
3/5
Grim Prognosis 3B
Sorcery
Each opponent gets a poison counter. Proliferate. (Choose any number of permanents and/or players, then give each another counter of each kind already there.)
“Well,” said the doctor, “the good news is that none of you will have to see her suffer for long.”
Void the Warranty 2R
Sorcery
Void the Warranty deals X damage to target player, where X is the number of artifacts that player controls plus the number of artifacts they’ve sacrificed this turn.
Meg wasn’t allowed to so much as look at the oven for a week.
Ungovernable Youths 2RR
Creature — Rebel
At the beginning of combat, choose a player at random. That player chooses whether, who, and how Ungovernable Youths attacks or blocks this combat.
Expecting teenagers of any species to listen to authority rarely ends well.
6/6
Transit Cannon 3R
Artifact
1R, T: You may put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield. It gains haste until end of turn. At the beginning of the next end step, sacrifice that creature unless you pay its mana cost. (Mana cost includes color.)
The only way to travel, excepting all others.
Invoke Chaos 1RRRR
Sorcery
Shuffle your library, then exile cards from the top of it until you’ve exiled cards with total mana value 6 or more. You may cast any number of nonland cards exiled this way without paying their mana costs.
“Do what thou wilt” be the whole of the command.
Living Supplement 1G
Creature — Frog
When Living Supplement dies, learn. (You may reveal a Lesson card you own from outside the game and put it into your hand, or discard a card to draw a card.)
No one expected Miss March to turn the prank into a biology lesson, least of all the frog.
1/3
Coiling Guardian 3G
Creature — Snake
Deathtouch
When Coiling Guardian enters the battlefield, venture into the dungeon. (Enter the first room or advance to the next room.)
Many seemingly abandoned ruins have defenses still lying in wait.
2/3
Vaultweb Recluse 3G
Creature — Spider
Reach
When Vaultweb Recluse dies, create a tapped Treasure token for each creature card in your graveyard. (A Treasure token is an artifact with “T, Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color.”)
To some, invaluable. To others, inedible.
1/4
Centurion’s Helm 3
Artifact — Equipment
Whenever equipped creature attacks, create a 1/1 white Soldier creature token that’s tapped and attacking for each attacking creature you control.
Equip Soldier W
Equip 3
Lunar Crystal 3
Artifact
T: Add U, B, or R.
Cycling 2 (2, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
Crystals formed during Nightmare Moon’s banishment seethe with her rage and echo with her buried remorse.
Steward of Paradise GW
Creature — Pegasus Druid
Flying
T: Add one mana of any color. You gain 1 life.
No pony has ever looked at a natural landscape without thinking they improve it.
0/3
Relic Collector UBR
Creature — Pegasus Artificer
Flying
Whenever an artifact is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, if it wasn’t a token, exile that card. Otherwise, put a +1/+1 counter on Relic Collector.
Once during each of your turns, you may cast a card exiled with Relic Collector. If you do, it gains “If this permanent would be put into a graveyard from the battlefield, exile it instead.”
1/1
Dustweb Spider 2RG
Creature — Spider
Reach
Dustweb Spider can’t be blocked by creatures with flying.
Pegasus maids began refurbishing the old manor by cleaning the rafters. That was the first mistake.
4/4
Inside Baseball Alert: Attic Rat seems to be trying to be Chimney Imp if Chimney Imp was good. Unfortunately, this is where I offer a Play Design Alert: Imprint it on Soul Foundry (which was from the same set as Chimney Imp) and have an instant-speed sacrifice outlet (Nim Shambler in Limited) and the opponent never gets to draw a new card ever again. Instant-speed hand denial is bad enough when it's discard, but this is just an outright Yata-lock you could draft!
Maro Get Your Gun Alert: WotC wants nonblue decks to be able to interact with poison, which necessitates tying the initial infection to combat damage. Grim Prognosis has a grim prognosis of its own.
Stupid Complicated Game Alert: Vaultweb Recluse and Centurion's Helm have the same interesting bit of nuance: they only take inventory on resolution, so their triggered ability can potentially do nothing if the right instant-speed answer is played. Centurion's Helm is more terrifying in the other direction, where if you have multiple the second trigger will see all the tokens from the first.
5713248
I remember assembling a deck with Hellhole Rats and Mimic Vat back in the day that did similar... but at least it mercifully killed you while grinding away your hand.
As for the prognosis, are you sure?
These comics were way better than I was expecting. I loved the Fluttershy running gag.
I wonder if there will be any more of these. Last time I was surprised that there was still any g4 media being made still, and it's sad all over again to think that this might be the last.
5713280
I certainly hope that this isn't the last G4 comic, but I have to say that I'm not a fan of the classics reimagined concept, nor the art style in these four issues, and if that's all that we're going to get, I'd rather have nothing more.
5713303
Also an ingredient of love potions.
That's a shame
I have no relationship to Little Women, so I didn't feel annoyed at the liberties it took with the story. I guess I can't promise I would feel the same about a classic I love. But I enjoyed this overall, and found the art appealing even though it was very different from anything else in g4.
5713268
Think of this as a "do as I say, not as I do". I'm going by MaRo's claims, much like how he thinks Leeches was a mistake that should never have been printed.
5713305
I've never read Little Women, so I've got no investment there. It's just that I'm generally fed up with reboots, revivals, re-imaginings, or any other sort of regurgitations standing in the place of creativity.
As for the art style, that's personal taste, but I couldn't help thinking of all the fan artists that I'd rather have seen work on these books. Honestly, the one re-imagining I would really love to see was based on a fan artwork: The Three Musketeers.
5713268
Also, Hellhole Rats at least lets your opponent play the card they just drew if it's an instant. Chimney Imp, like Yugioh's Yata-Garasu I mentioned, means that what they have when you start the loop is all they have to get out of it.
5713358
Also had Chittering Rats, but Hellhole was preferred for also dealing damage. Also for not pissing off every other member of playgroup.