Hello & welcome back to Trotting Through Life and back to the Rarity Retrospective. And today, we are looking at the first of three comics from the Friends Forever line. Friends Forever replaced the Mirco series after issue # 10: Princess Luna of that series. What is Friends Forever? Friends Forever is a series of one-shots that pair together two characters from MLP and tell a story. Some are common pairings such as the one, we are looking at today, Rarity and Applejack but then you get pairings such as Rainbow Dash and Trixie, Luna and Discord, or one of the more interesting ones that we will be looking at during this event that involves Miss Rarity and a little filly that is not her sister but is a Crusader. As for this Rarity and Applejack outing, I love it. This is one of my favorite MLP comics from IDW because it's just so funny. Yes, I said that and IDW did the impossible as they gave me a Rarity and Applejack story that I LOVE. Now, this comic drew inspiration from the John Hughes film, Planes, Trains & Automobiles. Which I've not seen but know enough about.
Though, I think it also drew inspiration from another John Hughes film, National Lampoon's Vacation. Which yes, I know was directed by Harold Ramis but Hughes was a writer on that film.
And I say this because at point in the comic, Rarity & AJ go to a theme park called Whinnyland, which is a parody of Disneyland and in National Lampoon's Vacation, Wally World was a Disney Parks parody.
And not only that, in one of the panels in this comic, you'll see the name, Griswold.
It's a bit hard to make out but that sign underneath Rarity says Griswold's World of Matching Shoes and Belts. And with the structure and story of this comic, that was intentional. With this introduction outta the way, let's begin.
Cover
There's only one cover to look at this time because unlike the Mirco-Series, Friends Forever doesn't seem to get multiple covers.
I love this cover with Applejack just being so annoyed and just wanting to get the trip done and over with whereas Rarity is so excited about all of the sights that they can possibly see along the way to their destination. Rarity is such a ray of sunshine in this comic whereas AJ is presented as someone who hasn't had her morning coffee. And that dynamic surprisingly works.
Staff
I'm not going to spend too much time talking about the staff here as it's the same exact staff from yesterday's comic and just like with the Mirco, they did a great job here and they really brought their A game.
The Plot
We open the comic as Derpy delivers a letter to Sweet Apple Acres from The West Coast Oranges about how they'd like to incorporate some of the produce from the farm into their desserts. Now, if you remember Cutie Mark Chronicles, you'll recall that The Oranges lived on the East Coast and that'll come into play later.
Applejack is excited at the prospect of a business expansion as they could use the bits to rebuild the barn again. I wonder what happened to it.
Well, that doesn't look too good. No matter, I'm sure Applejack will just be on her way as soon as she gets a bag. Oh well, it appears that The Crusaders are using them for base jumping. Well, this is where Rarity comes in and admittedly, Rares does invite herself on the trip as they're heading to Applewood, home of the rich and famous. And honestly, I know it was a little rude of Rarity to invite herself but man, did she make the trip worth it. And as we'll see later on during the trip, it's a good thing that Rarity did come along as Applejack doesn't have much business savvy. On the first ride on the train, everything seems fine but then the girls take in their stop, the world's large ball of cashmere yarn in Salt Lick City.
Oh, would you look at that? The goat is eating a script for season five, that explains why it took so long for the fifth season to start. Anyhow, Rarity get wrapped in all the details of the ball and AJ was supposed to let her know, when it was time to go but she fell asleep because she admittedly found it boring and so the girls hurried to catch their train but they get on the wrong train as they board the one heading to Seaddle as the train heading to Applewood had been delayed 15 minutes. This is the first case of, it can go wrong, it will go wrong in this comic. And the next train won't be at the station until morning. So, they decided to take in a water skiing show and Rarity says she can help AJ with her business plan but Applejack says that she doesn't need help with it and that she plans on taking a nap.
And they enjoy the show but as they head out to their taxi, a boat crashed on it and apparently, that happens at every show. The girls decide to walk and everything seems fine but darn that, Seaddle rain. The girls take shelter in a hangar and we learn that AJ's business plan is just sell apples.
And the next morning, Rarity gets an idea to use an old plane to get going back on track. And things seem to go well into they crash into Mt. Moment. The pony version of Rushmore, that's seems really far off in the other direction.
Also, I love the Petition sign to have Queen Chrysalis added and the fact that Chrissy is the only one that signed it seals the deal. Also, the image of Rarity and Applejack hanging off the monument made me think of Mt. Richmore from Richie Rich. And more how Richie's parents were hanging off of it.
Probably just a product of being a '90s kid. No matter, Rarity and Applejack use Rarity's scarf as a parachute and land in an old west town and come across Sam Elliot Pony. No seriously, he's credited as The Stranger. And Sam Elliot Pony helps the girls as he uses a stagecoach to get them to the town nearest to Applewood and just then, the coach is attacked by three bulls.
And AJ proves herself as she holds her own against these bulls while at the same, Rarity and her have a little spat over the lack of AJ's business etiquette. And the bulls promise that they'll return and they did in the main series' arc, The Good, The Bad, and The Ponies.
The girls make it to Applewood sometime later and Rarity helps AJ to plan out her business proposals and what she'll want to talk about with The Oranges and there is just enough time left that the girls decide to have some fun and head to Whinnyland.
The first time that I saw a pony version of Disneyland, I was howling with laughter. This was just so funny. One of my favorite things had been ponified and I loved it. Something else that made this even funnier is the fact that IDW is now putting out Disney comics. I spent a good 5 - 10 minutes soaking up everything on this page because it was so rich. After sometime at the park, the girls arrive at their detestation to be greeted by The Kale Family. Yeah, turns out Granny Smith misread the letter as it said East Coast, not West Coast.
But on the same token, I would've thought that Applejack would remember where our family lives as she did with The Oranges for a short time and I love seeing her get all flustered realizing that she made this trip and it turned out to be all for not.
All in all, I loved this comic. It finally gave a Rarity and Applejack story that didn't feel forced as use so many of the plot tropes that we've over and over again. And while they may have disagreed with each other, the arguing never got annoying nor was it the sole focus of this story. Granted, you can say the same about Simple Ways but unlike that episode, this comic didn't feel the need to make one character look better than other.
Characters
Rarity
I loved Rarity in this comic and how she tried to put a positive spin on everything that happened. She always tried to find the bright spot and was there to Applejack, even if the cowgirl didn't want the fashion forward pony's help but as we saw by the end of the comic, she needed it.
Applejack
I liked Applejack in this story. She didn't seem as annoying as she can be the show and while I was more on Rarity's side with the business stuff, I got where AJ was coming from as she doesn't have much knowledge in that area and yeah, she did let her ego in thinking that she can just sell apples get the best of her but she also worked well as the straight man, who was a bit crabby against Rarity's chipper attitude.
My Final Thoughts
I love this comic, it's one of my favorites. It's just so funny and it's one that I highly suggest you track down if you Rarity and Applejack as you'll get a kick out of it. Alright, two comics down, two to go. Join me next time for Friends Forever # 13 (which doesn't have a title) as we see Rarity head to Manehattan to visit with one of Sweetie Belle's friends as we see what happens when the IDW comic staff gives us a story about...
Rarity and Babs Seed.
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