Just for Sidekicks 2: Pets to the Rescue
- Story by Jeremy Whitley, Art by Amy Mebberson
Angel wakes up one morning to find Fluttershy missing and her forest critters making a mess of the cottage; they throw him out when he suggests they go search for her. Going into Ponyville, he finds it's deserted and the other pets of the Mane Six as clueless as he is. He uses Winona to cover more ground, and finds an aquatic creature is using an hypnotic song to control Ponyville's townfolk and making them dig a channel and break down Ponyville's dam. Realizing that the town would be flooded out by the dam breaking, they escape capture by the brainwashed ponies, and gather the rest of the pets. They convene at Zecora's cottage and concoct a plan to free their owners using Zecora's store of potions. The plan has a speed-enhanced Winona acting as a decoy to get the ponies away from the dam and then KOed by a giant Opal, while Angel uses the distraction to feed a Poison Joke potion to the aquatic creature, preventing her from singing and canceling her control over Ponyville's citizens.
After a short, but intense struggle, the pets' plan succeeds and the aquatic creature's song is rendered useless. Once freed, the ponies quickly turn on the aquatic being, who reveals herself to be a kelpie named Cassie. She explains that she was simply trying to get her water sprite friends, who couldn't leave the water, to the nearby ocean before they got sick. The ponies then decide to help them (much to Rainbow's displeasure). Angel is disappointed that the ponies lack memories from being brainwashed, but the other pets assure him he did a good job — until they realize that Opal is still giant-sized.
This issue provides examples of:
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Opal uses a potion to make herself huge, so she can swat away the ponies who were destroying the dam.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Opal's relationship with Rarity is rocky at best but this issue shows that she does genuinely care about her owner.
- Batman Gambit: When Angel is about to drop the magic potion on Cassie's mouth, she uses Twilight to imprison Angel. Turns out he was already expecting that and has already planned to use Gummy as a final distraction to disrupt Cassie's hypnotic song and let him use the magic potion on her.
- Big Damn Heroes: Winona and Angel are cornered by the brainwashed ponies and are rescued by Tank and Owlowiscious.
- The Cameo: Trixie and Coco Pommel are among the brainwashed Ponyville citizens.
- Can't Argue with Elves: Nobody ever calls Cassie out on the fact that her first plan to get the water sprites back was to brainwash the village instead of just politely asking for some help.
- Chirping Crickets: By Gummy, even! Angel enters a quite-empty Ponyville looking for Fluttershy, and Gummy, rolled up into a ball, rolls past like a tumbleweed and whistling a bit.
- Continuity Nod: The potion that Angel uses to screw up Cassie's singing voice appears to be one brewed from Poison Joke, given the bottle has a skull-and-crossbones wearing a jester's hat..
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: After Cassie's spell is broken, the ponies tell her they would've been more then happy to help her if she had just asked.
- Didn't Think This Through: The main problem with what Cassie did is that she didn't think to simply ask the ponies for help, or consider that breaking down the dam would flood Ponyville.
- On the side of the pets, they apparently forgot that Opal would still be a giant after they rescued their owners from Cassie.
- The Dog Bites Back: Only a quick explanation allows Cassie to escape the angry hooves of the Ponyvillians after they're freed from her control.
- Easily Forgiven: Good intentions or not, Cassie still tried to hypnotize all of Ponyville to destroy the dam and was forgiven quite quickly, which Rainbow Dash points out.
- Eye Scream: Owlowiscious carries Gummy by his eyelids. Though he doesn't seem to mind.
- Foreshadowing: The existence of kelpies was made official way back during the first comic story arc, as the map had a location called Kelpie Keep.
- Look at the poster as Winona is dragging Angel around.
- Cassie has the same powers and a similar design as the sirens from My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks.
- The Greatest Story Never Told: The issue ends with the ponies having no idea who saved them from Cassie's control.
- Hypnosis-Proof Dogs: Cassie's hypnotic singing has no effect on the Mane Six's pets.
- Iron Butt Monkey: Angel gets tossed around quite a lot throughout the issue. He doesn't let it slow him down, and he goes on to save the day.
- Karma Houdini: As Rainbow Dash lampshades, Cassie gets no real retribution for brainwashing Ponyville and nearly flooding the town (though Twilight does point out that she was simply helping her water sprite friends).
- The Leader: Angel is the one who leads the pets.
- Magic Music: How Cassie the kelpie controls the Ponyvillians. The pets break her control by using a potion of Zecora's to disrupt her voice.
- Making a Splash: Cassie seems to have some control over water.
- Must Have Caffeine: How Angel feels when he wakes up.
- Oh, Crap!: Angel and Winona's reaction to Cassie's entrance.
- Initially, Opal is indifferent to the Ponyville citizens being brainwashed to destroy the dam. Then Angel reveals that destroying said dam would result in a flood, leading to a very wet Opal. That gets her attention.
- Pictorial Speech-Bubble: All of the pets' dialogue is rendered as these (save for Owlowiscious, whose "Who" is written out).
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: The water sprites.
- Shown Their Work: A mild example: Gummy managed to deliver pain to Cassie after biting her tailfin even without teeth. Not surprising considering the powerful jaw strength of an alligator.
- Sizeshifter: Opal uses one of Zecora's potions to grow giant.
- Spanner in the Works: The pets are the only reason Cassie's plan to break the dam failed.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Cassie was just trying to help her water sprite friends, who couldn't leave the water, get to the ocean before they got sick. The thing is, there's a dam in the way... So, she decides to use her music to get the townsponies to break down the dam. As Twilight says, she did the wrong thing for the right reasons.
- Whatever Happened to the Mouse?: Opal disappears after the rescue attempt, only to show up again when Rarity asks where she is.
