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 directors, are not part of the film but are "tied into it". The shorts have been released through multiple outlets online, including the Hasbro Studios Shorts YouTube channel, Hasbro's My Little Pony Equestria Girls YouTube channel, Hasbro's My Little Pony Facebook page, and a German Equestria Girls YouTube channel. According to Ishi Rudell, the shorts are "not being released in the order they were made."

Music to My Ears
Music to My Ears is one of the eight animated shorts released as a tie-in to My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks. It is the first to be published by the Hasbro Studios Shorts YouTube channel, on March 27, 2014, the first to be published by the My Little Pony Equestria Girls YouTube channel, on March 31, 2014, the first to be published by the My Little Pony Facebook page, on April 4, 2014, and the first to be published overall. 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 Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, 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 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 one of the eight animated shorts released as a tie-in to My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks. It is the second to be published by the Hasbro Studios Shorts YouTube channel, on April 4, 2014, the second to be published by the My Little Pony Facebook page, on April 14, 2014, the second to be published by the My Little Pony Equestria Girls YouTube channel, on April 23, 2014, and the second to be published overall. 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 performance, 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 its 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 have to pay for it.

Hamstocalypse Now
Hamstocalypse Now is one of the eight animated shorts released as a tie-in to My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks. It is the third to be published by the Hasbro Studios Shorts YouTube channel, on April 11, 2014, the third to be published by the My Little Pony Equestria Girls YouTube channel, on April 23, 2014, the third to be published by the My Little Pony Facebook page, on April 27, 2014, and the third to be published overall. 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 she can clean out the tubes. When Fluttershy finishes, she finds that the hamsters have gone out of control during Rarity's attempts to accessorize them. Unable to calm the hamsters down, the girls reach for their backpacks to catch them. A tambourine drops out of Fluttershy's bag, hypnotizing the hamsters with its sound. Fluttershy shakes her tambourine to lure the hamsters back into the habitat, gaining her pony ears, wings, and tail in the process.

Quotes

 * Fluttershy: Rarity, what happened?!
 * Rarity: Oh! Aah! Well, uh, 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!

Shake Your Tail!
Shake Your Tail! is one of the eight animated shorts released as a tie-in to My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks. It is the first to be published by the German Equestria Girls YouTube channel, on April 16, 2014 until the upload was made unavailable later in the same week due to a copyright claim by Hasbro Studios LLC, "will go back up", according to writer Amy Keating Rogers, and the fourth to be published overall.

Production
This short was adapted into chapters 16 and 17 of the screenplay novelization My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks, which was released more than a week earlier than the short itself.

Summary
The short is a music video of the song Shake Your Tail wherein the six friends perform the song at a school dance party. The performance is interspersed with a story in which the six attempt to decorate the school auditorium for the party. Each tries out a different theme for the party that ends in failure of some sort: Pinkie Pie's luau-themed set that falls apart around her; Rainbow Dash bombards her friends with soccer balls and basketballs in a sports theme; Applejack's country theme includes a dangerous rodeo bull; Rarity's elegant masquerade falls through when Pinkie startles everyone with a tiki mask; Twilight Sparkle turns the party into a boring study session; and Fluttershy's petting zoo idea results in animals running amok. Finally, Rainbow Dash comes up with an idea and combines all of their themes into one.

Pinkie on the One
Pinkie on the One is one of the eight animated shorts released as a tie-in to My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks. It is the fourth to be published by the Hasbro Studios Shorts YouTube channel, on April 25, 2014, the fourth to be published by the My Little Pony Equestria Girls YouTube channel, on May 6, 2014, the fourth to be published by the My Little Pony Facebook page, on May 11, 2014, and the fifth to be published overall. The animation primarily focuses on the human counterpart of Pinkie Pie.

Production
This short was adapted into chapters 10, 11, and 12 of the screenplay novelization My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks, which was released weeks earlier than the short itself.

Summary
Pinkie Pie is being instructed by Granny Smith in making cookies in a home economics classroom. Rainbow Dash reminds her that she's supposed to help find a drummer for Rainbow's band. Rainbow states that it's difficult to find someone who can use both hands like drummers do. Pinkie decides to make the cookies faster by folding another bowl of cookie batter with her free hand, but she folds the batter too fast, splattering the two bowls all over herself and Rainbow.

Later, Pinkie helps Rainbow make a banner by the soccer pitch, and is told to use as much glitter as she likes. Rainbow comments that a drummer needs the right instincts, which can't be just anyone. As a result of her rhythmic tapping on the giant glitter jar Pinkie sprinkles too much glitter and gets it all over Rainbow.

At lunchtime, Pinkie does some wild rhythms on the glasses, bowls, lunch trays and heads of her and her friends with her silverware and slamming her fists on the table. During all this, Rainbow says that the person must have a lot of energy, enthusiasm and be able to carry the whole band on their shoulders, while getting annoyed with Pinkie's antics. Rarity suggests finding an outlet for her energy, which gives Rainbow Dash an idea.

Pinkie is then seen behind a drum set doing a wild solo in the band room, and she transforms into her half-pony form. Rarity asks Rainbow Dash what gave her the idea of putting Pinkie on the drums, and Rainbow guesses that she just has "a sense for these things", and Pinkie Pie closes the short by doing a rimshot.

Player Piano
Player Piano is one of the eight animated shorts released as a tie-in to My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks. It is the fifth to be published by the Hasbro Studios Shorts YouTube channel, on May 10, 2014, the fifth to be published by the My Little Pony Equestria Girls YouTube channel, on May 23, 2014, the fifth to be published by the My Little Pony Facebook page, on May 25, 2014, and the sixth to be published overall. The animation primarily focuses on the human counterpart of Rarity.

Development and production
Ishi Rudell wrote on Twitter "Ronald Jenkees - Throwing Fire This guy was one of our inspirations for Rarity's key-tar sound in 'Player Piano' http://youtu.be/0O2aH4XLbto".

This short was adapted into chapters 13 and 14 of the screenplay novelization My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks, which was released more than a month earlier than the short itself.

Summary
Rarity struggles to push a weighty grand piano across campus in time for band practice with her friends, filthying her hair and clothes. She spots three human versions of the Diamond Dogs digging near the school building, and attracts their attention with her dazzling allure. The boys are then shown carrying the piano through the school halls with Rarity riding on top, barging through a crowd of students blocking their path.

In the band room, Rarity's friends are impatiently waiting for her, with Applejack figuring she's planning to make a "grand entrance". Rarity finally arrives atop her piano, and is questioned by Rainbow Dash about her cumbersome choice of instrument, to which she argues the piano's elegance befitting of her "full musicality". Before she can begin playing, the band's reserved time in the room runs out, and they must relocate their rehearsal to the gym. Rarity moans over her ill fortune of having to move the piano again when Pinkie Pie suggests she use the more portable keytar—an instrument that's part-guitar, part-keyboard.

Rarity is taken by the instrument after playing a few notes, and transforms before her amazed friends. She is convinced to bring the keytar to their next rehearsal space, and asks the Diamond Dog boys to carry her there on the grand piano, to which they eagerly oblige.

Quotes

 * Rarity: I simply cannot thank you enough. And while I am a bit repulsed by your musky smell, I can appreciate that you are diamonds in the rough.


 * Rainbow Dash: Ugh! Where is Rarity?!
 * Applejack: That gal probably just wants to make some sort of grand entrance.
 * Rarity: Ta-daaaaah!
 * Applejack: Told ya.


 * Pinkie Pie: Or you could play this! It's part-guitar, part-keyboard; it's a guitar-key!
 * Rainbow Dash: You mean, "a keytar".
 * Pinkie Pie: Po-tay-to, to-mah-to.

A Case for the Bass
A Case for the Bass is one of the eight animated shorts released as a tie-in to My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks. It is the sixth to be published by the Hasbro Studios Shorts YouTube channel, on May 24, 2014, and the seventh to be published overall. The animation primarily focuses on the human counterparts of Applejack and Flim and Flam.

Development and production
According to Ishi Rudell, "nearly 20 seconds of Granny Smith hilarity" had to be cut "due to time constraints."

This short was adapted into chapters 5 and 6 of the screenplay novelization My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks, which was released more than a month earlier than the short itself.

Summary
At a garage sale in front of Applejack's house, Applejack asks Granny Smith who she accidentally sold her bass guitar to. Granny Smith replies that she sold it to the owners of a new pawn shop.

Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash enter the pawn shop, the Flim Flam Brothers' Everything-Under-the-Sun Emporium, and meet its fast-talking owners: the human counterparts of Flim and Flam. Before the two can talk the five friends into a sale, Applejack inquires about the bass guitar in the far corner. Flim and Flam agree to sell the bass to Applejack for the "non-negotiable" price of $1,000. Rarity points out that the two bought it from Granny Smith for only two dollars, but Flim explains that they need to cover "overhead and transportation costs".

Applejack offers to pay back the two dollars they initially paid for the guitar, but the brothers are skeptical that it even belongs to Applejack; not even Applejack's monogrammed initials on the guitar strap are enough to convince them. When they go so far as to question Applejack's playing ability, Applejack takes the guitar and plays a skillful bass solo, causing her to transform into her half-pony form.

Flim and Flam are convinced of Applejack's rightful ownership but remind her of the costs of overhead and transportation (as well as stocking fees). Applejack's friends grow weary of the brothers' swindling, pressuring the brothers to agree to a trade. As part of the arrangement, Applejack promotes Flim and Flam's pawn shop on the sidewalk while dressed in a banana suit. Granny Smith walks by, commenting that she didn't know Applejack played the bass, and Applejack becomes annoyed.

Quotes

 * Flim: Welcome to the grand opening of the Flim Flam Brothers' Everything-Under-the-Sun Emporium!
 * Flam: If you want it...
 * Flim and Flam: ...We've got it!
 * Flim: Need a pogo stick?
 * Flam: A bowling ball?
 * Flim: A stuffed clown?
 * Flam: Whatever this is?


 * Applejack: It is. That's my bass.
 * Flim: And can you prove that this is, in fact, your bass?
 * Rarity: Her initials are monogrammed right on the strap.
 * Flam: That could mean anything. It could stand for...
 * Flim: "Aardvark Junior"...
 * Flam: "Anvil Jokers"...
 * Flim: Or "Animal Jane".


 * Granny Smith: Since when do you play the bass?

Gallery

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