Web Video / PONIES The Anthology

PONIES The Anthology is a series of compilation videos composed of brief AMVs (or, as they are known in the fandom, PMVs) of the cartoon series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. The first one, released in 2011 and running 24 minutes, relied on profane audio clips and songs (examples include the Insane Clown Posse's "Miracles", Ludacris' "Move Bitch", the "You eat pieces of shit for breakfast?" scene from Happy Gilmore, and Christian Bale's infamous on-set rant) as well as the occasional absurd joke and extended homage. It has since been followed by two longer sequels: II (2012, 82 minutes) and III (2013, 74 minutes). The humor of II and III is derived from large doses of absurdism and Literal Mindedness, as well as many Visual Puns, Homages, and instances of fancy editing and flawless lip syncing.

Basically? Think AMV Hell, but with technicolor ponies instead of anime.

IV is only 6 minutes long and contains no PMVs whatsoever, instead consisting only of a few completely original Parody Commercials about Bronycon 2014 and an opening based on The Elder Scrolls that gets more and more ridiculous as it goes on. It ends with a note from the creators that says the stress of doing the project led them to stop production. The very end of the video hints at the release of a fifth installment, which was released in 2015 and runs 65 minutes. At Bronycon 2016, the team premiered a few clips of footage from an upcoming sixth entry in the series, which premiered in 2017 and runs 65 minutes. The seventh entry, running around 78 minutes, premiered at Bronycon 2019 and was announced to be the final one. Following the release of the Generation 5 movie My Little Pony: A New Generation in fall 2021, an "Update 7.05" entry was made for that year's Ciderfest, running 15 minutes. An "Update 7.20" entry premiered at Ciderfest in fall 2022, running 42 minutes, followed by a 61-minute "Update 7.314" at the 2023 event.

They can be found as follows:

• I^note The original video has been blocked by WMG.
• II
• III
• IV (such as it is)
• V^note The original video has also been blocked by WMG.
• VI
• VII
• 7.05
• 7.20
• 7.314

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The PONIES The Anthology series contains the following tropes:

• Abhorrent Admirer: The brony from the "A Heart for Sweetie Belle" segment of Anthology V.
• Adventure Game: Pony Quest I
• Affectionate Parody: Contains parodies of among other things Kanye West's "Power", a segment from AMV Hell 5, the Epic Sax Guy, and the Beavis and Butt-Head intro. And that's just Anthology I!
• Also sprach Zarathustra: Used in the 2001: A Space Odyssey parody, naturally.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: "The Rainbow Connection" is rated PG-13 for "Crude Humor, Language, And A Rob Schneider Reference".
• Art Shift: A few shorts are done in the style of the work they're parodying, such as "Not Your Buddy Guy!", having Gilda and the ponies as South Park Canadians.
  • The two stills "Friendship is GAR!" told of the beginning and end of the commercial break. These were done in the style of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
  • The "Worker and Parasite" segment parodies (and is named after) another Art Shift sequence from The Simpsons.
  • Anthology II has 2 clips featuring a CG Princess Celestia.
  • Anthology III has a clip from the intro to Dragon's Mare, done in Don Bluth's style, and even including a ROM check sequence.
  • Three skits have been made using General Zoi's Pony Creator: The Futurama joke in Anthology II showing a pony dying from boneitis, and two bits in Anthology III where deliberately terrible OCs of the contributors partake in parodying The O.C..
  • Several bits from III, V, VI, and VII were made in Source Filmmaker.
  • The ponified versions of The Dead Alewives' "Dungeons and Dragons" sketch and the Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt credits are done in a somewhat chibi style.
  • A couple segments from Anthology V are done in the style of Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff.
  • Another segment in Anthology V features the Equestria Girls in the style of Star vs. the Forces of Evil.
• Bait-and-Switch: In VII, a skit has someone requesting for pictures of the characters with their mouths open. Someone questions if this is just for lewd art before the request explains that they want to photoshop microphones to make it look like they're singing.
• Black Comedy: The "Unicorns are falling from the sky" segment in Anthology III.
• Bowdlerization:
  • Along with the uncut version, the original Ponies: The Anthology had a "con friendly" version that doesn't include the segments that feature cursing.
  • Generally, when anthologies are premiered at conventions, heavy swears and suggestive scenes are censored, while the version found online is uncut. VII had a few of its scenes omitted from it's Bronycon premiere due to this.
• Call-Back: In Anthology, Fluttershy is shown staring at the viewer in black and white, to Koyaanisqatsi. In Anthology III, she still is...and crashes into the camera.
  • At the end of the bit showing Crackle singing Andrea Bocelli's "Time to Say Goodbye" in III, the duck who was shown singing "Figaro's Aria" from The Barber of Seville in II pops out of his mouth. The duck also shows up later during the second set of closing credits. In V, the duck appears again, this time singing Guillotine instead of the usual opera.
• Camera Abuse: In Anthology II, when "Rarity Wrecks the Camera":
  Rarity: Of all the worst things that could happen, this is the worst. Possible. *Crash*
  Twilight: Are you all right?!
  • In Anthology III, Fluttershy's Koyaanisqatsi stare from the first is continued with a slow zoom in on her until the camera runs into her and breaks.
  • In Anthology VI, Scootaloo crashes into the camera while launching herself up to Cloudsdale.
• Dancing Theme: Pinkie Pie dances to the Fast Food Song.
• Earth-Shattering Kaboom: The trope namer gets directly referenced in Anthology III.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The first anthology had both a unedited version and a clean version for conventions. Later antholodies would have only one version, with audiences being warned the content in the videos being PG-13.
• End-of-Series Awareness: VII, has a number of skits aimed at the fact that it was coming out right at the end of Friendship is Magic and being premiered at the last Bronycon.
• Epic Fail: In Anthology III, Scootaloo tries to look cool. She promptly trips on a a log, flies up the side of a tree, and lands so hard she causes a giant nuclear explosion.
  • She does it again in VI, but this time she tumbles into the bowling alley of the Nintendo game Wii Sports and gets a strike.
  • In V, Celestia attempts to do a "Stayin' Alive" strut only to walk straight into a pole.
• Fan Vid
• Funny Background Event: During the Aqua Teen Hunger Force segment with Luna, "The Moon Rules", Lauren Faust's Alicorn avatar can be seen in a window in the background.
  • In the segment immediately before that, Rainbow Dash singing Jon Lajoie's "Very Super Famous", a baby carriage in the background rolls offscreen and explodes.
  • In Anthology III, at the very end of the bit with Twilight and Spike reenacting the "I am Kim Possible" vine, the Lipstick-Faced Demon randomly appears in Twilight's open door. Doubles as a Call-Back, seeing how an earlier bit involved it randomly appearing and scaring Spike, and triples as a Freeze-Frame Bonus.
• Have a Nice Death: Parodied with the Pony Quest clip.
  If you had been paying attention to Pinkie's tail 20 screens ago you would have seen this coming. Oh well.
  Thank you for playing Pony Quest I. We are very sorry that you are not smart enough to beat our game.
  Now go read a book or something.
  • Curse Cut Short / Atomic F-Bomb: The player's response. 'FFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU', then the end of the clip before C.
• Grand Finale: VII has been announce to be the final one. Indeed, the ending credits emphasize having to say goodbye, and the first Stinger is the line Anthology is Dead.
• Homage: All over the place, but most notably the first Anthology opens with a shot-for-shot (sort of) remake of the music video of Kanye West's "Power". Other examples include:
  • The second of the Koyaanisqatsi segments bears an uncanny resemblance to this clip from AMV Hell 5, with Fluttershy taking Haruhi's place.
  • A redux of the Beavis And Butthead opening sequence with two of the bullies from Sonic Rainboom.
  • Anthology II recreates several television Title Sequences with MLP characters, including Monk ^note ("Twilight"), The Walking Dead ^note ("The Trotting Dead") and Archer. ^note (with Applejack in the title role)
  • The last clip before the end credits of Anthology II is a ten-minute-long, almost shot-for-shot ponified remake of some of the most iconic scenes from 2001: A Space Odyssey, in loving detail. It's also available as a standalone video.
  • The first part of the credits to Anthology II mimics the credits of How to Train Your Dragon, using similar effects and Jonsí's "Sticks and Stones".
  • The start of the Mitternacht segment in Anthology II (with the fade outs in beat to the song) is an homage to this AMV, which sets the song to Hellsing, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, and Blood: The Last Vampire.
• In the Style of: Anthology I's end theme and Anthology II's game screen rework the songs "Winter Wrap Up" and "Smile, Smile, Smile" in 8-bit style.
  • The end of Anthology II used, in addition to Jonsí's "Sticks and Stones", an orchestral version of "Smile, Smile, Smile".
• Leeroy Jenkins: "Twilight Jenkins".
• Lighter and Softer: Where the first Anthology had a content warning and a separate clean version, the second and third were specifically designed to stay PG-13.
  • They even bleeped a few instances of curse words. Rather strange considering, although there are no uncensored swears in dialogue, a bit in Anthology III spoofing Inferno Cop that contains Shining Armor saying in subtitles "Who the hell do you think I am? I am the motherfucking law you piece of shit!".
• Long List: In II, a commercial on how to make Dortios comes with a list of nonsensical ingredients.
• Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: The third anthology features a scene where Alicorn Twilight bumps into Canterlot Castle. The top then falls off and lands on Ponyville.
• Mind Screw: Dog Spike's face shrinking accompanied by the Final Fantasy Adventure mini-boss music.
• Mondegreen Gag: One segment in Anthology V depicts the Cutie Mark Crusaders as having "Farts Strong as Horses".
• Mood Whiplash: Going directly from a creepy montage using the Are You Afraid of the Dark? theme to Pinkie laughing like Woody Woodpecker.
• Noodle Implements: The credits of Anthology II feature such responsibilities as Hip-Hop Specialist, Executive Mad Scientist, Speech Therapist, and Executive Inspector of D'awww.
• Offscreen Crash: Rainbow Dash's thrown horseshoe in III causes, in order: glass breaking, the Wilhelm Scream, a thudding noise, a slide whistle, That Poor Cat, a crashing sound, an old-timey car horn, more glass breaking, "My leg!", an air raid siren, and a nuclear explosion.
• Old Shame: The G1 cartoon in-universe as of Anthology II, appearing in the "Ponies React To" segment and also when Applebloom sees a video of G1 Applejack.
  • Anthology III continues it with a bit where the Cutie Mark Crusaders are swimming away from the Sea Ponies.
• Overly Long Gag: The "Fallin' in Love" montage in Anthology II goes through six different reiterations until the whole cast of Monty Python and the Holy Grail tells them to get on with it.
  • Anthology 7.314 has a gag with Rainbow Dash slowly flying up to Twilight's window, in reference to Adam Warlock's similarly memetic entrance.
• Parody Commercial: A few about halfway through Anthology II in a short break, all parodying various commercials both real and from other works. The third also them, some put into a break but others scattered around. Again, they all parody various real and fictional commercials.
  • The majority of IV is some original commercials about Bronycon, first one for the convention itself, parodying a typical stock scam ad, then a Dada Ad for Bronypalooza, and finally "Joey Costa's Panel Emporium", a Severely Specialized Store that sells panels for the convention.
• Pun-Based Title: Pinkie Pi.
• Rapid-Fire Comedy: As in AMV Hell, the clips featured are around thirty seconds at the longest.
• Reaction Shot: The Cutie Mark Crusaders and Angel Bunny during the "Let's Talk Dirty to the Animals" bit in Ponies the Anthology; Pound and Pumpkin Cake at the end of the segment spoofing The Room (2003) in Ponies the Anthology II.
• Real Song Theme Tune:
  • Kanye West's "Power" for the first Anthology, as mentioned above.
  • V uses "Moanin'", a jazz composition by Charles Mingus (as recorded by the Mingus Big Band in 1993).
  • VI uses a cover of "The Man Comes Around" by Johnny Cash.
  • VII uses "Mallrats (La La La)" by The Orwells for its intro.
• Real Trailer, Fake Movie:
  • Anthology I has Pinkie π, a Deliberately Monochrome trailer that tells the events of Feeling Pinkie Keen using audio from the trailer for π.
  • The last skit of the commercial break of Anthology II is one for "The Rainbow Connection", about Spike, played by Rob Schneider, becoming Rainbow Dash. The whole thing is a Shout-Out to the parody trailers in the South Park episode "The Biggest Douche In The Universe".
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: One segment in Anthology VII (set to Carpenter Brut's "Good Old Call") shows various nightmarish moments where the eyes of the ponies are glowing red.
• Rummage Fail: One segment in Anthology III features Pinkie Pie accidentally grabbing Rarity's fainting couch, and Rarity subsequently grabbing Pinkie's party cannon by mistake.
• Running Gag: Characters firing their lazor. Done with Fluttershy, Pinkie (twice), Spike, and, somehow, a letter to Princess Celestia.
  • Anthology II has a few:
    • Princess Celestia punishing the ponies with time in the dungeon a la Adventure Time's Lemongrab.
    • "U2" (See Stealth Pun below)
    • Audio clips from The Rock.
    • Dubstep/drum n' bass songs starring different members of the "Mane 6", complete with Screen Shake effects.
    • Gummy's "Bucks Not Given" was meant to be this, however all but the first segment were cut for time.
    • In addition, two segments dubbed "Rainbow WMD" in Anthology II were supposed to have several other in effect. These were cut not only for time, but quality control.
  • invoked Anthology III has a couple: one involving the "Thanks, M. A. Larson" meme; the other involving Nichijou.
  • invoked One series wide one seems to be extending one very short clip of a character to show him/her performing some Awesome Music. There's the duck singing "Figaro's Aria" in II, Pinkie Pie playing "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" on a flugelhorn in III, and Crackle the dragon singing "Time to Say Goodbye" (which calls back to the duck) also in III. The streak continues in V with Señor Huevos singing "Nessum Dorma".
  • Soos makes three appearances in Anthology V.
• Sound-Effect Bleep: In Fluttery Tate, using Fluttershy's Yay.
  • Fluttershy's squee is used five times in Anthology III, for bits parodying End of Days, Catch Me If You Can, JonTron's reviews of Nightshade and King's Quest V, and the "Don't Jinx My Sneeze" vine.
• Soundtrack Dissonance
• Speaking Simlish: What happens when you mix Rarity with Captain and Tenille's "Muskrat Love" in Anthology III.
• Stealth Pun:
  • "Not U2."
  • Perhaps also "Applejack is Stubborn", given that the tree is already dead.
  • Mr. Sparkle
  • Shinji's rant is done by Spike.
  • A parody of The Ring featuring Applejack in Anthology III is a pun in the sense that the Japanese word for "apple" is "ringo."
• The Stinger: Anthology I has a sort of Screamer Prank, while Anthology II has one more PMV set to The Golden Girls theme song.
  • Anthology III contains two stingers. The first is the regular credits to Friendship is Magic done in the style of Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, while the second involves Applejack in a picture depicting Bronycon 1921.
  • Anthology V has Spike declaring that he hates everyone and congratulating the Crusaders on finishing V.
  • Anthology VI ends with a ponified version of Leslie Nielsen's character from the movie Airplane! delivering his (slightly edited) Running Gag line: "I just want to tell you good luck. We're all counting on you."^note The word "both" has been cut out.
  • Anthology VII has two: Ponies dancing while the words Anthology Is Dead are superimposed over it, and the crew of Anthology VI celebrating the end of VI, with one of them saying that this celebration should be a short in Anthology VII if it ever gets made.
    ANTHOLOGY 7 HAPPENED FUCK YOU
• Take That!: Anthology III features a lot of jabs at the drama over "Twilicorn", including the event mentioned under Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds, AKIRA characters and Pinkie Pie being terrified of it, and M.A. Larson himself undoing it.
  • There's also one to My Little Pony: Equestria Girls (or at least the average fan reaction, it's hard to tell), using a scene from Family Guy:
  Applejack: Son of a bitch. They also stole my sense of wonder. [Cut to Applejack looking at the movie's logo, then towards the camera] Nope.
  • And one to the C&D of My Little Pony: Fighting Is Magic via a Parody Commercial for the Playstation 4. In the commercial, Applejack and Twilight play the game on an Xbox One. The console then reports it for copyright, causing the library to explode.
  • Contributor Dr. Dinosaur has been confirmed to hate Rarity. As a result, he put this bit in III showing her falling from a great height and splattering on the ground while this obscure YouTube song that goes "Unicorns are falling from the sky, they won't survive, I'll let them die." plays.
  • There's a non-pony one in a Freeze-Frame Bonus on the Street Fighter III parody, with Trixie's Winner screen.
    A Real Fighter cheats to win
    It works for investment bankers
    All the time, Barry Bonds used steroids
    And look how stinking rich he is
• Testosterone Poisoning: Any segment with Iron Will. From II, he is dubbed over by Dwayne The Rock Johnson, and in III, he is Macho Man Randy Savage and Mister Torque.
• Visual Pun: There's a lot.
  • In VI, Applebloom has to tell her friends to pretend they're "apples". So they pretend they're Apple products like an iPhone or iPad.
• We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties: Played for Laughs as a transition from one clip to the next, and always involving Derpy Hooves in some way (except for 7.20).

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