Look Before You Sleep

Dear Princess Luna...

So, got Bridle Gossip finished, leaving 8 episodes left, but don't think I'm going to be able to do two tonight. If and I do say, if, I can continue at least two a night, that just means 4 more days until my odyssey is complete!

I tried not to read fansites and the like once I started doing this, so as not to spoil things, but I did see that Season 3 is starting soon, and will only have like half the episodes of the other seasons. What led me to that info was a map they put out for Equestria as a promotional item, which is pretty cool. Equestria is obviously based on North America it seems, and Trottingham is missing. Wasn't there an episode where it seemed Rarity went there and back in a short amount of time? (Indeed there was, Stare Master, she works overnight to make robes, delivers them to Trottingham and is back the next morning or afternoon) I'm guessing it is an island, probably off the eastern seaboard.

The Frozen North may be where the pony tribes' old homeland is, since beating the windigos was likely just a fluke thanks to Clover's Hail Mary friendship heart of fiery doom.

Big image, make sure you click on it to see it in all its glory.

There are four posters: the map, one of the show's rogues gallery, one of the entire cast of Season 1 and 2 (including Daring Do, Con Mane, and Twilight's Smarty Pants doll!), and one of the Canterlot Wedding. I believe they will be available via Wal*Marts in some capacity. They are pretty awesome, and as much as I hate to admit it, I want them. >_>

'Mane' Cast

Canterlot Wedding

Rogues Gallery: Chaos is Magic

The interesting thing is that Daring Do and Ahuizotl, and other characters of varying 'realness' like Con Mane and Ninja Mulia, are shown. I looked at the map first, then the villain one, and was excited to see Ahuizotl there, thinking it may be evidence Daring Do is a legit pony. Con Mane etc. showing up in the full cast one casts some doubt on that though, but hey, always a chance. =]

Oh damn, I guess I didn't pay attention before, but as I was captioning that last one, I noticed it has some massive spoilers, showing at least 3 villains I have yet to see. =[ D'oh!



Finally getting to the episode... We begin with a scene of the Ponyville ponies moving clouds, pulling down branches, and Rarity shows us several new uses for magic.

She reattaches the tree limb, then transforms the lead clusters into art.

Applejack rips the limb down. Apparently they are bringing down loose tree limbs because the pegasi have scheduled a storm, because they missed another scheduled rainfall earlier. Nice to see the 100~ Ponyville pegasi managed to screw up the one thing they have to do. Is this going to be an Applejack vs. Rarity episode, like how Fall Weather Friends was Rainbow Dash vs. Applejack?

"I hate two of my five closest friends."

Rarity is complaining about the rain falling gently on her mane, Applejack tells her to go hide under a picnic table. Rarity doesn't want to get mud on her hooves, and the two start bickering.

So Applejack now has blood feuds with Rainbow Dash and Rarity.

They start to go their separate ways when lightning strikes, and they huddle together, Rarity suggesting that maybe they should stick together and find shelter.

Twilight sees their predicament and invites them inside the Library. Applejack stops outside and asks if being in a tree is the smartest of ideas in a lightning storm. We learn another use for magic: magical lightning rods. Rarity asks Applejack to go clean her hooves, which were all muddy, and Applejack starts complaining about Rarity under her breath.

Twilight invites Rarity, and by extension, Applejack, to stay the night for a slumber party. Rarity tries to weasel out of it, not wanting to be near Applejack. Twilight grabs a book and gives it to Rarity.

Aww, the book is Slumber 101: Everything You Wanted to Know About Slumber Parties But Were Afraid to Ask, Twilight's personal copy.

"We're going to have so much fun!"

Poor Twilight, it turns out she has never had a slumber party so this would be her first one.

"What's the first rule of slumber 101? Obeying all the rules! This is going to be so fun!"

Applejack comes in after hosing off her hooves and is upset at seeing Rarity and Twilight applying mud masks to themselves, angrily asking why she had to hose off the mud if they're putting mud on their faces.

"You yell at me fer tryin' ta drag mud in, then you put it on yourselves?!?"

Applejack starts reading title of Slumber 101 and immediately tries to get out of there. Lightning strikes and she runs back in. Rarity and Applejack try to come to an agreement to not screw up Twilight's first slumber party, but quickly descend into taunting each other.

They do their hair next, and we see another new use for magic: instantly removing curlers and setting their mane/tail/Applejack's hat to their usual appearances.

 

Next is ghost stories, Applejack tells one about the 'prissy ghost who drove everyone crazy with unnecessary neatness' and Rarity retorts with the 'messy, inconsiderate ghost who irritated everyone within 100 miles.'

"And the prissy pony died, killed by her so-called friend, and the prissy pony haunted Equestria for eternity, nagging every pony she could!"

The lights go out, and Twilight begins telling the story of the Headless Horse.

Twilight manages to scare Applejack and Rarity, especially at the end where she pulls a cloth over herself to be the Headless Horse.

Next they make S'mores. Quasi-new use for magic: constructing the perfect S'more. Applejack eats one and chews with her mouth open, then burps, Rarity is disgusted.

Truth or Dare is up next, and Rarity and Applejack immediately mock each other, daring Applejack to do something carefully and neatly, daring Rarity to lighten up and stop obsessing over every little detail, and then 'the truth of the matter' being that Applejack needs to pay a little more attention to details, and the 'truth' is that Rarity needs to stop fussing so others can get things done.

"I dare you to spend more time with Sweetie Belle!"

Twilight says she doesn't think that's how you play the game. I like how she's completely oblivious to her two friends constantly going at each others' throats, too.

"This isn't how you play this game... Do you ponies have the sequel to this book or something?"

Rarity gets dared to go outside and ruin her mane. Twilight says she has to do it.

Rarity dares Applejack to play dress-up and wear a 'fru-fru, glittery, lacey outfit' which seems a farcry from having to go outside in a lightning storm and getting drenched, but it pleases Rarity.

"Oh my, yes! I'm completely soaked, but you have to wear fancy clothes!"

Twilight asks when she gets a turn. The two start daring each other to enter or not enter rodeos, comb or not comb their manes, Twlight says they should probably just check off Truth or Dare and move on.

"Pillow fight? What is that? Perhaps I should skip it, since my friends are constantly attacking each other, but it is in the book..."

The next thing is pillow fight, which Twilight doesn't understand. Rarity starts saying how she won't participate in something so crude, and gets nailed in the face by a pillow. Rarity is out for blood pegs Applejack in the face. The two start kicking pillows at each other. We see, I think, another new use for magic, as Rarity uses her magic to move incoming projectiles, then launch them back.

+1 Unicorns/magic

Twilight stands up in the middle, finally understanding what a pillow fight is, and goes down in a hail of feathers. Twilight asks them to tone it down then says maybe they should just get some sleep.

"I just wanted to have fun..."

Twilight had so many pillows, and apparently only has her bed and a guest bed, which Rarity and Applejack have to share.

Why exactly does Twilight have so many pillows? Each bed only has one or two.

To no surprise, the two start bickering and fighting over the blanket. Rarity wants to make it perfect, using magic to tuck it in then squirming into bed. Applejack just jumps in and knocks Rarity off the bed. Rarity wants to tuck the blanket back in, and the two start tug-o-war'ing the blanket.

Yes, Rarity, take all the blanket, Applejack will surely just go to sleep exposed, and not retaliate.

For some reason I thought of writing 'They manage to make Twilight angry' but I remembered who I was talking about. =]

"Enough is enough! Meet me somewhere with your AK and I'll bring my Glock, punk!"

Twilight is very disappointed in her friends, showing them her Slumber 101 book which says the number one thing you're supposed to do is have fun, and she can't check it off. The two start bickering over which one of them was trying to get along. Hmm, let's see. Rarity was possibly repairing branches with magic, Applejack ripped it down. Rarity didn't want to get muddy, Applejack got annoyed and started off on her. Rarity asks Applejack to wash off before going into Twilight's home, Applejack mouthed off at her. Applejack told the first condescending ghost story.Applejack messily ate the s'more and got yelled at by Rarity, so Applejack's fault if she intentionally ate it like a slob. Rarity started the truth or dare fiasco. Applejack started the pillow fight. Rarity started the blanket war.

Twilight complains that they've ruined her very first slumber party  She asks if there's anything else that can go wrong, and lightning strikes a tree near the Library.

"You two are jerks! I'd expect this kind of garbage from Rainbow or Pinkie, but you two?"

The tree looks like it is going to fall over, Applejack tells Rarity that's why they were taking down loose branches. What? The things trunk was scorched nearly in two, taking down loose branches wouldn't have done anything. Applejack lassos it, Rarity tried to stop her, and saves the house it was leaning towards. The tree then leans the other way and comes through the window.

"Well, Twilight's books are already on the ground, I'm sure she won't mind me using this one for cover."

Twilight is angry, but only because she can't find anything in Slumber 101 about giant branches in your slumber party.

"No, no, no, no, no! This is all wrong!"

Rarity is focused on picking up Twilight's book while Applejack tries to get the branch out. She apologizes to Rarity, and tells her she should have listened, since her 'annoyin' attention to detail' would have prevented the branch from coming in. Rarity continues picking up the books, Applejack tells her to stop sweating the small stuff and help with the one big thing that matters, please.

*sigh* "Do I really have ta say it? Fine... Please."

Rarity says she'll get icky, and Applejack starts to rage then calmly explains that you do tend to get icky with hard work, but she can't fix the mess she made on her own and needs Rarity's help. Aww, Twilight is so cute, she asks if this makes it a backyard slumber party and if it counts as camping.

Aww, Twilight's so cute. <3

Rarity uses magic to transforms most of the debris into cute little sculptures. Applejack is about to kick a branch out and is glared at by Rarity, she gently tosses it out instead.

That's all it took. Like 6 seconds of concentrating on a spell?

The crisis averted, Rarity notices she's a mess. Applejack puts some cucumbers over Rarity's eyes so she doesn't have to see herself, and the two hug.

Aww.

Twilight had been so engrossed in her book she didn't even notice the debris being cleared, and wonders where the sculptures came from, but adds that they aren't in the book either.

"I don't see anything in here about apologizing, branches, storms, or getting icky."

Later, they are playing Twenty Questions and Rarity and Applejack can't guess what Twilight is thinking of. Together, they both guess an extremely ludicrous thing, and Twilight says they got it right. It turns out she was thinking of her telescope, which Rarity and Applejack probably would not have guessed, since it was in plain sight of Twilight, but behind them. Twilight was adorable, when they asked if they were 'getting warmer,' Twilight asked if they were cold and she needed to turn up the heat.

"Oh, Twilight, you are just the living end!"

Twilight says she lied, just wanting them to get along, and that they could have been having fun all along. She finally gets to check off 'having fun' and declares her first slumber party a success.

"Hurrah, Twilight! You had fun, in spite of our antics!"

Rarity and Applejack start bickering again, but it's all in fun. Twilight writes to Princess Celestia, saying she learned it's hard to believe two ponies with so little in common can get along, but if you embrace each other's differences, you may find a way to be friends afterall.

"Dear Princess Celestia, my friends are idiots."

The episode ends with Twilight inviting them to a slumber party the next night, getting pillows thrown into her face, then asking about one a week from Thursday, two weeks from Saturday, or a month from now, as Rarity and Applejack laugh at her, presumably still pelting her with pillows.

What I learned from this episode:

• Oh how the mighty have fallen. Applejack, what happened ol' top? You went from being the one pony without many faults, the stalwart in Fall Weather Friends, to a Rainbow Dash level in this one. Although I guess technically the correct order is this episode then FWF, which would mean she improves in behavior.
• Twilight is just adorable with her naivete, and surprisingly wasn't raging very hard even though they were ruining her first slumber party. How sad is that though, she's got to be in the teens, and never had a slumber party? I guess they aren't kidding when they say she didn't have any friends.
• This episode was jam-packed with uses for magic, and most were performed by Rarity, surprisingly.