Nov
4th
2018
Points of Canon: Rainbow Rocks Shorts · 1:53pm Nov 4th, 2018
I figured I should try to complete my collection of televised Pedestrian canon notes, while it’s still practical to track all the scattered releases of that down. Because they aren’t making this easy and because it’s relevant to my interests. And today, I’ll be handling the Rainbow Rocks shorts as a single unit
These shorts are not particularly interdependent, and while they’re all meant to follow Equestria Girls and precede Rainbow Rocks, they don’t necessarily do – at least one can float out of this interval, not that this changes much of anything.
Music to My Ears
- Chronology markers: The Humane 5 are present sans Sunset. Since they’re friends, this short cannot overlap the period when they weren’t, but we don’t know for sure how long that was – and it could in fact precede Equestria Girls, and happen in Year 2P or 1P.
- Vinyl is using a device that most resembles a 5th generation iPod, but cartoon resolution does not permit us to identify it with certainty, and it doesn’t behave like one: iPod Classic never had Bluetooth, while Vinyl’s headphones are apparently wireless, as shown in the subsequent scene, when she replaces them with in-ear wired earbuds. Notice that in Guitar Centered they’re wired, instead.
- The policeman directing traffic is for some reason wearing body armor. I’m not sure when did this become common practice in the US, but there generally were reasons for adopting this practice, weren’t they? They didn’t do this in the 80s, I believe.
- The blue dog Vinyl encounters suggests that just like we have blue hair referred to in speech, multi-colored animals might be a reality in Pedestria, rather than just narrative convention. I’m still not convinced regarding skin color.
- I’m not sure whether it’s Diamond Tiara or Silver Spoon’s bag next to the table they’re sitting at, but it contains a tiny dog. One of them has a pet. Notice that as far as we know, their pony counterparts don’t. We still don’t know the age of the pedestrian foal generation characters…
- The pedestrian Donkey Doodle makes a rare appearance. We don’t know his specific job, but most likely, he’s a teacher at Canterlot High.
That said, nothing of consequence happens, so it can happen whenever it pleases.
Guitar Centered
- Chronology markers: The Humane 5 are still sans Sunset. However, the band is already an idea, when no trace of this activity was heard of prior to their reconciliation. Rainbow acquires the guitar she subsequently uses in Rainbow Rocks.
- Vinyl works the counter at a musical instruments store. Whether this is a random part time job or something she does on a more permanent basis is unknown, we never see the place again.
- Notice that this time, Vinyl’s usual headphones are wired.
- Notable stuff for sale includes cables, amps, and a keytar. Which is one of those things that permits us to conclude that cartoon resolution applies in Pedestria too: Amps and cables often don’t make it into the frame, even though they are presumed in speech in Rainbow Rocks.
- “Rainbow Dash, I simply don’t understand why you can’t just play the guitar you have.” To break a guitar this way, Rainbow would have to drive a car over it: The neck of the guitar is extremely strong, as it’s one part of the guitar that is definitely not supposed to bend. That said, a replacement neck would be cheaper, and in most cases, the neck can be replaced, being connected by a thick bolt, rather than glued on.
- The twin-neck guitar Rainbow and Trixie clash over is very strange: both necks appear to be normal six-strings. The most common combination is a 12-string and a 6-string guitar, and 6-string / bass, or fretless / fretted combos. Combining two six-string guitars into one just produces an extra heavy guitar for no obvious practical benefit – they exist so that you don’t have to swap guitars between songs arranged for different guitars. I could imagine a use if either neck had some radically different pickups, but these look identical too, and in any case, you’d likely see different sets of pickups one above the other, selected with a switch, rather than an extra neck. Only one set of strings has a vibrato arm, but that’s still not a good enough reason. I actually have no clue why would anyone want this. Especially at the price that is subsequently displayed.
- “I touched it first, Rainbow Dash!” Notice that both of them immediately assume the store only has one.
- Trixie is fairly competent at playing a six string electric guitar, even though she does not do anything of the sort later in Rainbow Rocks.
- Once Rainbow ponies up, her guitar changes color as part of her transformation. It remains changed afterwards and serves as a chronology marker – it is definite that she acquired the dark blue guitar in this episode.
- Rainbow pays for her new guitar with cash – and forgets the case from her old one in the shop.
“Twelve-thousand dollars?!”
- Pedestrian monetary units are called dollars.
- Most stores would write “11999”, but not this one.
- The sum is beyond Trixie’s budget, and if the scale holds for ~2014 time period, it’s hardly surprising.
Hamstocalypse Now
- Chronology markers: Rarity and Fluttershy are still sans Sunset, but Fluttershy ponies up, requiring this to follow Equestria Girls. At the same time, there is no clear upper bound, it could float out of the bracket upwards if desired.
- “The rescue center needs all the help it can get.” So that’s what this place is called.
- “Once a year, a lucky volunteer gets to clean the hamster habitat. I signed up for it months ago to be sure I’d get it.” Fluttershy is a volunteer, rather than an employee of any kind.
- “Housecleaning!” Fluttershy already has some explicit powers of animal control, since there’s no way to get hamsters so aware normally.
- “Rarity, what happened?!” One of the hamsters is wielding a lasso, which is generally beyond hamsters.
- “Also, I named them.” When did she make all those clothes for the hamsters remains entirely unknown.
- Notice that Fluttershy ponies up while playing a tambourine that she already was carrying around in her school bag.
I suppose the unusual behavior of hamsters has to be attributed to magic if this short is to be taken seriously at all.
Pinkie on the One
- Chronology markers: Pinkie ponies up and becomes the drummer for the Rainbooms as the result of this short, which fixes it between the movies.
“Just remember, the most important thing about sugar butter cocoa cookies is to fold your batter. Too much arm turnin’ll make your cookies tougher than a lump of coal.”
- …What, really?
- Notice that neither Apple Bloom nor Applejack are present for this scene, so what is the occasion is anyone’s guess.
- Also notice the batter mixer right behind Granny Smith in that scene. Actually, this kitchen is equipped with three of them for some reason. Also, it’s an unusually big kitchen…
- I wonder why does Pinkie employ not one but two wooden spoons.
- This would have to be the earliest appearance of the music room seen in the beginning of Rainbow Rocks, and also, the first appearance of Pinkie’s drum kit. See the related PoC for notes regarding drum kit logistics.
Player Piano
- Chronology markers: Rarity ponies up and settles on a keytar that she subsequently plays for the Rainbooms, which locks this short between the movies. Rainbow sports her unique guitar acquired in Guitar Centered. Both Pinkie and Applejack are already band members.
- “Come on, Rarity! You simply must get this piano to band practice!” You’d expect the school to have at least one piano available, though, wouldn’t you?
- “What I need is a bit more muscle.” The Neanderthal-looking Pedestrian Diamond Dogs never appear again as far as I remember.
“That gal probably just wants to make some sort of grand entrance.”
- Notice that the drum kit in the music room is not the same drum kit as appears in the movie or in Pinkie on the One. Yes, I am concerned about drum kit logistics, have you ever tried to move one?…
- Applejack has her bass guitar in this episode, Pinkie is playing with a drum.
- “Well, our time’s up. I guess we’ll have to move our practice to the gym.” The music room has to be booked by the clock, something not entirely clear from the movie.
A Case for the Bass
- Chronology marker: This is fixed between the two movies, for the same reasons the others are, but also, contains the moment where Applejack’s bass transforms – requiring Player Piano to precede.
- “When ya accidentally sold my bass at the garage sale, who did ya sell it to?” Remember this line, it becomes important later.
- “I sold it to the owners of that new pawn shop.” Pedestrian Flim and Flam are not inventors either. See my long rants on the subject in every other PoC featuring them.
- “Welcome to the grand opening of the Flim Flam Brothers’ Everything Under the Sun Emporium!” The pawn shop has recently opened, though how recently is anyone’s guess: Flim and Flam like to exaggerate, it would be just like them to stretch the grand opening for months.
- The pawn shop is nearly devoid of notable stuff, though musical instruments are for some reason overrepresented.
- “Whatever this is?” It looks vaguely like the device Twilight used on Pinkie in Feeling Pinkie Keen, but isn’t.
“I can give you this bass for a non-negotiable price of one thousand dollars.”
- More dollars.
- That’s pretty expensive for a used bass. In fact, I would think this implies that Flim and Flam know that Applejack will want this particular instrument rather than a new one, and hope to bully her into paying up.
“Her initials are monogrammed right on the strap.” The initials on the strap are perfectly readable “A.J.”
- An uncommon instance of viewer-readable English in Pedestria.
- This is actually kinda important: As we know, Pedestrians refer to each other by pony names most of the time, which would be exceedingly unusual for a human. And in pony names, as well as in dictionaries, “Applejack” is one word, not two, even though occasionally it is shortened in speech to “AJ.” This suggests that in Pedestria, pony names are not legal names, but at the same time, this does not permit us to determine what Applejack’s legal name is.
- “Of course that’s her real name!” And there Rainbow goes and muddles the issue further.
- This is a fretless bass, but as Applejack transforms, it transforms just like Rainbow’s guitar did, and becomes a non-fretless bass.
- “Then again, I suppose we could make some sort of trade?” Notice that forcing Applejack to dress up as a banana playing a bass still does not settle just when the shop actually opened.
- “Since when do you play the bass?” Granny Smith does not remember Applejack learning to play the bass, though that doesn’t surprise me much.
This particular episode has interesting consequences:
- Applejack’s bass transforms from the form seen in Player Piano to the one seen in all subsequent appearances.
- Which would imply that Granny Smith forgot that Applejack handled the bass just recently and sold it.
- Which further implies that the Pedestrian Granny Smith has memory problems considerably more serious than her Equestrian counterpart was shown to have.
Life is a Runway / Friendship Through the Ages / My Past is Not Today
Being explicitly music videos, I’m not certain they are supposed to depict actual events, so I’m leaving those out of this analysis. Never mind the oft-reused shot of Sunset riding a horse. While they can be used as characterization arguments, they do not constitute unambiguous worldbuilding statements.
Some analysis
Notice that up until the music videos – which are more likely to be music video projects produced after Rainbow Rocks, if they are in-universe at all – Sunset does not feature in any of these shorts. The entire build up to entering the Battle of the Bands excluded Sunset completely up until it was time to draw the poster, and solely involved the Humane 5, despite their promise to Twilight at the end of Equestria Girls.
This is something not readily apparent from the movie, when Pinkie, upon seeing Sunset, calls her over immediately.
At the risk of tooting my own horn, I'll note that my blogs on the shorts include links to them should you need any assistance in locating them.
So it looks cool but is wildly impractical. Are you really surprised that Rainbow Dash and Trixie are fighting over it?
Given both this and Friendship Games, it sees safe to assume that human Rarity has some kind of superhuman, possibly magical fabrication ability.
They do show up in some crowd scenes in Rainbow Rocks.
And yeah, Sunset's exclusion is more than a little bizarre. It's unclear if this is deliberate snubbing by the girls, Sunset distancing herself due to discomfort, or just mutual awkwardness.
A fretful bass?
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Of course not – I’m surprised it was manufactured at all.
Rarity, the Fabricator-General of Mars.
I just noticed that the Science of Magic may also fall into this time period: Nothing actually stops it from being there, and it would explain where did Sunset run off to. But more on that in the dedicated post.
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Oooh!
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Well, if I had to pick anyone to charm the Void Dragon...
The most notable thing I took away from this collection of shorts was the revelation that the portal will turn a dragon into a dog, but Equestrian dogs become human. The universe(s) really shit on Spike a lot.
And notice that she seems to be outplaying Rainbow Dash, until Rainbow Dash resorts to magical steroids to beat Trixie. There's a reason Trixie and the illusions were the top ranked non-magical band in the Battle of the Bands.
It seems like the sort of thing that Equestrian Rarity and Fluttershy could easily accomplish with their respective cutie mark powers. I wonder if Pedestrian "cutie mark magic" has always been present in a low-key way, paving the way for acceptance of proper Equestrian magic?