Friendship Is For Adults is an ongoing Abridged Series based on My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, in which the characters are reimagined as adult show type characters that curse like sailors. It stars Twilight Sparkle as she lives in Ponyville as punishment for disobeying Princess Celestia and trying to resurrect Nightmare Moon.
It was developed by The Kanterlot (Eyes Of Estranged, Kitaronicus, and Beans And Jam). The show was first announced over a year before they finally released the first episode and casting changes happened shortly after. You can find it on The Kanterlot's YouTube channel here
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In addition to currently seven episodes, there are also five audio-only specials, including a Christmas special, two Halloween specials, a Valentine's Day special and an Origin Story.
It did a crossover with another My Little Pony Abridged Series called Scootertrix the Abridged, which lead to creation of an ongoing Royal Correspondence series, where both version of Celestia and Luna exchange letters, while giving the viewers insight into what all four are going through, that can not be shown during regular episodes.
Now has a Season One Summary.
This Abridged Series contains the following tropes:
- Adaptational Villainy: Twilight Sparkle, to the point where she borders on a Villain Protagonist in early episodes. Instead of the original show's kind but introverted unicorn searching to make friends, she is rewritten here as the unbelievably narcissistic treacherous student of Princess Celestia who is plotting to overthrow the princess, having apparently already tried and failed once before. She initially has no interest in friendship, seeing the other elements purely as possible "henchponies" (though she comes to care deeply about them and see them (minus Pinkie, though she is softening towards her) as friends by Episode 4) and treats her adoptive dragon brother Spike like dirt, making him essentially her slave and effectively ignoring him by pretending that he speaks a different language when it suits her. Somehow, though, the show still manages to make her likeable, and she has softened up considerably as of Episode 7, but she was pretty bad at the beginning.
- Also Applejack, to a lesser extent. She is a con artist who sells illegal Apple products (which she gets in trouble for in Episode 4), and in Episodes 1-3, was actively trying to kill Twilight.
- Art Shift: Episode 4 had a skit where Twilight doodled her sibling relationship with Spike.
- Episode 5's bit where Rainbow talks with the Scooby Gang for help regarding her current predicament with Gilda and Pinkie Pie was drawn by Kitaronicus. And that scene even had an art shift within the art shift: for a few seconds, Rainbow Dash is drawn with realistic horse proportions.
- The prologue to the crossover, and the prank calls in Episode 6 were done by Mick-o-Maikeru.
- Axe-Crazy: Rarity. In the Everfree Forest, she beats wild animals and monsters to death with her bare hooves, even though it's completely unnecessary.
- Batman Gambit: Pinkie Pie deals with Gilda by inviting her to a party and letting her drink all the beer she wants. Gilda gets drunk, makes an ass of herself, and alienates Rainbow Dash.
- Cast Full of Gay / Everyone Is Bi: Fluttershy and Rarity are a couple, Twilight has a crush on Rainbow Dash despite claiming to be straight, and Rainbow Dash used to date Gilda and Spitfire. Also, Celestia has a thing for Twilight.
- Cool Big Bro: Shining Armor Tries to be this for Twilight and Spike to limited success.
- Crossover: "Scootertrix is For Adults", which is a crossover with Scootertrix the Abridged. Which led to the spinoff series Royal Correspondence.
- Crossover Cosmology: Real life religions, most prominently Christianity, exist in this version of Equestria. How they arose in the land of cartoon horses has yet to be explained.
- Darker and Edgier: Even compared to other abridged series, there are plenty of dark and sad moments in the series that do contrast from the traditional Black Comedy.
- Didn't Think This Through: In this version of Equestria, those jewels in the castle in the Everfree are superweapons created by Nightmare Moon. When the mane six try to use them against NMM, she immediately overpowers them, and mocks them for being dumb enough to use her own weapons against her.
- Driven to Suicide: In episode 4, Applejack can't deal with the radio implant in her head—not only is the music annoying, but it screws with her concentration and hampers her ability to do anything. Eventually she's so miserable that she decides to end her life, and Twilight has to talk her down.
- Early-Bird Cameo: "Scootertrix is For Adults" establishes that this portrayal of Rarity is the mother of Sweetie Belle and hints that Rarity's father is missing, possibly dead.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The first two episodes have a very comedic tone closer to most other abridged series than the later episodes.
Eyes of Estranged has stated that this was because they started off wanting to parody more of the fandom than to focus on Dramedy. - The Fundamentalist: Pinkie Pie is an outspoken Christian who's gleefully certain that everyone outside her faith will burn in hell, and she's gung-ho to overthrow Princess Celestia for being a "false god". But she isn't a homophobe, in spite of Gilda's accusations.
- Garage Band: Pinkie and Rainbow Dash start one in Episode 5.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Luna gets one with an alternate version of herself after the crossover with Scootertrix.
- In Vino Veritas: For much of Episode 5, Gilda plays innocent while Rainbow Dash is around, but is a complete jerk whenever Dash's back is turned. She shows her true colors when Pinkie Pie gets her drunk at a party.
- Just Ignore It: For much of the early episodes, Twilight pretends that Spike's speaking in a different language, just to piss him off.
- Knight of Cerebus: Apple (as in the computer company), in Episode 4.
- Parental Favoritism: Twilight's parents almost openly favor Shining Armor over her and Spike.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Applejack gives Twilight one in episode four, after months of trying to be nice to her.
- Also Gilda, in Episode 5.
- Sibling Rivalry: Spike and Twilight for much of the show.
- Synchronous Episodes: The "Scootertrix is for Adults" crossover is actually two episodes, happening simultaneously. The episode on Kanterlot's channel is about three Scootertrix characters exploring the Friendship is for Adults universe; the episode on Scootertrix Studio's channel is about three Friendship is for Adults characters exploring the Scootertrix universe.
- Talking Is a Free Action: Subverted for humor. In episode 5, Rainbow steps inside her own mind to have a lengthy conversation with her conscience. The audience might assume that Year Inside, Hour Outside is in effect, but nope—the action cuts back to the outside world, where everyone else wonders why Dash isn't moving or talking for so long.
- Wham Episode: The Origin Story
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Subverted. Dragons are shown to be treated as equals. Most likely due to the dragons having the largest army on the entire planet.
- With Friends Like These...: There's quite a bit of enmity within this version of the Mane Six. For maximum fireworks, the dislike is one-sided, to ensure the ponies in question interact a lot.
- Applejack resents Twilight Sparkle, to the extent that she'd rather keep suffering than accept help from Twilight.
- Twilight can't stand Pinkie Pie. When Pinkie goes to vent about her problems with Gilda being a jerk to her, Twilight's response is basically, "Great! Get out of my house."
- Worst Aid: When Twilight is talking Applejack down from suicide, she means well but she gets frustrated and calls Applejack an idiot. Insulting someone who's suicidal is not a good idea (as the creators pointed out in the commentary for that episode).
