My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks/Animated shorts

Coinciding with the release of My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks, Hasbro is also releasing a series of eight animated shorts that, according to show director Jim Miller, are not part of the film but are "tied into it". Each short will be written by a different writer; specifically, those writers are Cindy Morrow, Natasha Levinger, Josh Haber, and Amy Keating Rogers. According to director Ishi Rudell, the shorts are "not being released in the order they were made."

Music to My Ears
Music to My Ears is the first of the eight animated shorts released as a tie-in to My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks, released on March 27, 2014. The animation primarily focuses on the human counterpart of DJ Pon-3.

Development and production
According to director Ishi Rudell, the original ending of this short involved Principal Celestia putting on the headphones and rocking out to the music.

This short was adapted into chapters 4 and 7 of the screenplay novelization My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks.

Summary
As DJ Pon-3 is crossing the street, she puts her headphones on and turns on some dubstep music. She starts walking to the music's rhythm, and everything around her moves and is synchronized with the beat, from a crossing guard to the chirping of baby birds to the barking of a dog. During her walk, she passes by the Cutie Mark Crusaders and other Canterlot High students. As DJ Pon-3 enters Sugarcube Corner, everything briefly slows down, and she passes by Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie. At the counter, she buys a cupcake from Mrs. Cake before heading out.

Upon reaching Canterlot High, DJ Pon-3 struts through the hallway. A pair of students joins her, but Cranky Doodle motions for them to enter his classroom. The school bell rings, and every student except DJ Pon-3 is in class. She's stopped by Principal Celestia, who confiscates her headphones and gestures for her to get to class. As the principal walks away, DJ Pon-3 puts on a spare pair of earbuds, and the music resumes.

Guitar Centered
Guitar Centered is the second of the eight animated shorts released as a tie-in to My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks, released on April 4, 2014. The animation primarily focuses on the human counterparts of Rainbow Dash and Trixie.

Production
This short was adapted into chapters 2 and 3 of the screenplay novelization My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks.

Summary
Rainbow Dash visits a music shop with her friends to replace her broken electric guitar with one that "looks as awesome as [she's] gonna make it sound." A double-necked guitar catches her eye, but Trixie grabs it at the same time she does, and the two begin to fight over it. At Applejack's suggestion, Rainbow Dash challenges Trixie to a "shred-off" to determine who will keep the guitar.

The two girls fight to outperform each other with their solo guitar riffs. As Trixie begins to gain the upper hand, Rainbow Dash's entire body levitates into the air and surges with an electrical aura, transforming her into her pony-like form and changing her guitar's appearance. Rainbow Dash hits the ground and creates a sonic rainboom-like shockwave that blows Trixie aside.

The other girls applaud Rainbow Dash's victory, but as DJ Pon-3 hands her the double-necked guitar, Rainbow Dash decides to let Trixie have it, saying her transformed guitar is the one that "really speaks to [her]." Trixie gloats over her self-supposed victory as Rainbow Dash leaves with her new guitar, only to read the price tag and realize her prize costs $12,000, and swears revenge on Rainbow Dash.

Quotes

 * Rarity: Rainbow Dash, I simply don't understand why you can't just play the guitar you have.
 * [sproing]
 * Rarity: [gasps] Now I understand.


 * Rainbow Dash: That's the problem! I need something that looks as awesome as I'm gonna make it sound.


 * Trixie: The Great and Powerful Trixie always wins in the end! [laughs]
 * Rainbow Dash: I doubt it.


 * Trixie: Twelve-thousand dollars?! You'll pay for this, Rainbow Dash!
 * Pinkie Pie: No, silly! If you want it, you'll have to pay for it.

Hamstocalypse Now
Hamstocalypse Now is the third of the eight animated shorts released as a tie-in to My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks, released on April 11, 2014. The animation primarily focuses on the human counterpart of Fluttershy. The title is a play on the title of the 1979 movie Apocalypse Now.

Production
This short was adapted into chapters 8 and 9 of the screenplay novelization My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks, which was released days earlier than the short itself.

Summary
Rarity helps Fluttershy volunteer at the animal rescue center to clean the hamster habitat. Fluttershy lets all the hamsters out with Rarity so can clean out the tubes, but finds that it is chaos outside moments after finishing. Rarity explains she had tried to dress up the hamsters, accidentally causing the hamsters to fight over their accessories. Fluttershy tries to calm them down, and a tambourine drops from her backpack, hypnotizing the hamsters with its sound. Fluttershy decides to shake the tambourine to lead them back into the cages. After a few bars of shaking, she transforms and the hamsters go back into the habitat.

Quotes

 * Fluttershy: Rarity, what happened?
 * Rarity: Oh, I, uh— [screams] Carl Pettington's coat just begged to be accessorized, but Emilia Furhart refused to be left out, and got Curtis Pawpower to chew right through Carl's little scarf, and before I knew it, I had a habitat-wide feud on my hands! [beat] Also, I named them.


 * Rarity: Huh! I never would have guessed hamsters could be so touchy about fashion!

Gallery

 * DJ Pon-3 feeling the beat EG2.png
 * Animated shorts image gallery