Power Ponies Special
A story that takes place entirely in the comic world of "Power Ponies", including the actual versions of these characters and Humdrum (himself a pony here).
The Power Ponies stop several of Maretropolis' villains and put them into Balkham Asylum, earning the praise of the city. But behind the scenes, the Ponies are rather antagonistic towards each other, much to Humdrum's dismay.
In Balkham, Mane-iac meets with four other criminals: Long-Face, High Heel, Pharaoh Phetlock, and Smudge, and suggests that they work together to defeat the Power Ponies, as operating alone hasn't worked in the past. With the aid of a sixth, Shadowmane, they are able to break out of prison and begin their scheme. Later, the Power Ponies are alerted to new danger in Maretropolis but find themselves against all six of Mane-iac's team. The villains easily overpower the superheroes (and tie up Humdrum), and take them to Mane-iac's lair. There, she uses a device that transfers the innate superpowers from the Power Ponies into her gang of six, and with their new-found super abilities, begin to ravage the city.
Humdrum helps to free the others, who fear without their powers all is lost, but their sidekick recalls a show on television that teaches of the strength of friendship and how it can overcome even the greatest villain. After running the Power Ponies through an intense friendship training montage, the group is ready to go off and face the Mane-iac and her gang - only to be caught immediately in a trap. As the villains gloat to themselves, the Power Ponies manage to escape, and secretly goad the villains into distrusting themselves. With the villains angry at each other, the Power Ponies have enough time to reverse the effects of Mane-iac's power swapping machine, and restore their abilities. The Mane-iac and others are quickly subdued by the Power Ponies. As the story concludes, the Power Ponies ask Humdrum about this show he got his idea for, and he takes them back to their tower to show them several episodes of My Little Donkey.
In a separate side-story at the end of the issue, Mane-iac escapes from prison and returns to the lair where her hair dryer of doom (from "Power Ponies") lays in ruins. Amidst the destruction she finds a strange mirror and, drawn through it, finds herself in a world populated by humans. Curious as to this new world and what evil she can make, she explores and runs into the human version of Mane-iac. The two do not immediately recognize the other and begin to fight, but soon discover they really are the same, beyond the species difference. The two take about their past exploits and agree that they can work together in their separate universes to complete their evil goals. Human Mane-iac says goodbye as the pony version returns to her own world. Human Rainbow Dash, who has been reading this comic, is perplexed by the pony version of Mane-iac.
This issue provides examples of:
- Adaptation Species Change: The Masked Matterhorn is a unicorn instead of an alicorn, and Humdrum is a pony colt instead of a baby dragon.
- Alphabet Architecture: The headquarters of the Power Ponies is shaped like two imbricated Ps.
- Attack Pattern Alpha:Masked Matter-Horn: Okay, team: formation Alpha-Delta-12!
- Bedlam House: Balkham Asylum, a clear Expy of Arkham.
- Big Bad Wannabe : Poor Pharaoh Phetlock talks a big game, but doesn't appear to have any actual powers and is the least threatening of the villains on display. The first time he appears he gets taken out by Humdrum, the second time he ends up curled into a fetal position on the floor having a emotional breakdown before the heroes even arrive.
- Breaking the Fellowship: After realizing that friendship alone won't help them stop the League of Villainy, the Power Ponies decide that they must break apart the League. They do so by sticking to the shadows and try to convince the villains that they're out to get each other.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Pharoah Phetlock gets into an argument with the narrator about his name.
- Brought Down to Badass: The League of Villainy was able to steal the Power Ponies' powers, but the heroes' defeat was only temporary; once they learned to work together as a team, they easily defeated the villains, stealing back their powers in the process.
- Didn't Think This Through: After learning about the Power of Friendship and teamwork, the Power Ponies set out to defeat the League of Villainy without their powers. They're immediately defeated and thrown into a cage.
- Expy: The Power Ponies' base is a clear Expy of Titans Tower, a pony Commissioner Gordon is briefly seen, Balkham is obviously meant to be Arkham, Long-Face is a pony version of the Sandman visually (but closer to Scarecrow in his powers), Pharaoh Phetlock is King Tut from the 1966 Batman TV series, and "My Little Donkey" is such an obvious My Little Phony that if anyone else did it, they'd get sued for copyright infringement, with the characters being obvious donkey versions of the Mane Six.
- Gilligan Cut: After their intense friendship training with Humdrum, the Power Ponies race off to fight the villainous six. Cut to next panel where they have all been trapped, hung upside down in a cage.
- Lemony Narrator: The Phony Pharoah, er, Pharoah Phetlock complains that he or she got his name wrong.
- Headbutting Heroes: Masked Matterhorn outright states that the Ponies are free to bicker with each other all they want as long as they don't do it in public.
- My Little Phony: Or rather "My Little Donkey", the show which taught Humdrum the meaning of friendship.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The Villain Team-Up ends up helping the Power Ponies learn to work together better.
- Power Parasite: The Mane-iac and her allies manage to steal the abilities of the Power Ponies.
- Prequel: This ia implied to be the case for the Mane-Iac side story, which seems to be an in-universe comic Human Rainbow Dash is reading, since Rainbow Dash seems perplexed by the idea of a Pony Mane-Iac and dimisses the idea as "weird", which she would hardly do had she already experienced her adventures during the Equestria Girls movies.
- Series Continuity Error: A minor example. In Mane-iac's side story, she visits a human world by going through magical portal, not unlike those known from Equestria Girls spin-off series. However, while all ponies passing such portals emerged on the other side as humans (and vice versa), Mane-iac somehow retains her pony form. This is most likely deliberate, to make her run-in with her human counterpart all the more hilarious.
- Sequel Hook: The Human and Pony Mane-iacs hint at a future Villain Team-Up. However, it does fall into Ambiguous Situation since Human Rainbow Dash is seen rreading the comic universe, leaving unknown whether it all really happened or was just an In-Universe comic issue.
- Spanner in the Works: Once again, the Mane-iac fails to properly take Humdrum into account, and he not only frees the Power Ponies, he is able to help them learn how to work together better.
- Training Montage: Humdrum teaching the others how to come to trust and value friendship when their powers are taken away.
- Villain Team-Up: The plot of the issue is the Mane-iac forming an alliance, The League of Villainy, with 5 other villains in order to steal the abilities of the Power Ponies.
- Villainous Breakdown: Pharaoh Phetlock has one, with Matter-Horn even referring to it as an emotional breakdown.
- We ARE Struggling Together: Although they act like friends in the public eye, the Power Ponies can barely stand each other. Luckily, they are able to overcome this to stop the Villain Team-Up (with a little help from Humdrum).
- What the Hell, Hero?: After the Power Ponies have been stripped of their powers, Humdrum calls them all out on their behavior towards each other up to that point.
- Who Writes This Crap?!: Human Rainbow Dash's reaction to the whole thing. "A four-legged Mane-iac? This comic is weird."
- Wunza Plot: Six super-powered ponies (and their powerless Sidekick) with personalities that clash so hard that when they aren't fighting crime, they're fighting each other.
