Season 3: Review #5: “MLP: FIM: Season 5: Episode 13: “Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?”

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING YOU’RE ABOUT TO SEE MAY CONTAIN SOME SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!! TURN BACK IF YOU HAVEN’T, You know the rest.

-We Now Join Our Regularly Scheduled Review Already in Progress-

Hello, I’m The Detective Librarian and I love Princess Luna!! Who doesn’t love Princess Luna AKA Nightmare Moon (when she was corrupted), who is Princess Celestia’s younger sister and the Princess of the Night in Equestria? Even though Celestia’s a good character, I find Luna to be better because of her backstory, character, and how she was corrupted, but is still haunted by it, until we reach today’s episode. Yep, this episode, that first aired yesterday on July 11, 2015, titled “Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep”? Or, as I like to call it, “A Nightmare on Ponyville”. Now, since Luna’s return, let’s see how much “Fun” she can do, before this season of “MLP: FIM” goes on a hiatus, until we reach the third “Equestria Girls” movie, “Friendship Games”, by taking a look at “Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?”

So, the episode starts off with the Mane Six inside the Castle of the Two Sisters, where Princess Luna is waiting for them. A magical, blue smoke creature turns her back into everyone’s favorite evil side of her, “Nightmare Moon”. Luckily, the Mane Six turn into their Rainbow Super-Saiyan Power form, that was seen in “Twilight’s Kingdom”, to turn Luna back to good, but it causes the smoke creature named the Tantabus to escape. Luna turns back to normal and is cornered by the Rainbow-Powered Mane Six, until she wakes up and finds out that it was ALL a dream. She realizes that her dream ending in a happy way must not happen, along with the Tantabus escaping.

The episodes, then, cuts to the next scene in the Carousel Boutique, where the Mane Six are grooming their pets, including (thank God) Owlicious because it’s nice to see if Twilight’s pet owl, Owlicious, ever was returned back to Twilight Sparkle or not. I wonder how Twilight found Owlicious, after Golden Oak Library was destroyed by Tirek, since she was seen flying away in a sad state after the destruction of Twilight’s old home, before Twilight fought against Tirek in a state of rage. But, I digress, we see that Twilight and her friends are in a tired, raggy state because they all had bad nightmares, last night, which included the blue-smoke monster from earlier. Now, our heroes realize that they need to ask Luna about what is going on in their dreams, by asking Spike to write a letter to Luna (instead of Celestia, just like in the Classic Episodes) about the smoke monster (even though I explained on what it is, earlier). After this, Luna goes to the Carousel Boutique, very quickly (somehow) and explains that the creature that they saw in their dreams last night is a creature named (as I said, before) the Tantabus. The Tantabus is a blue-smokey monster that can turn anypony’s dreams into nightmares and it escaped through Luna’s mind and into the Mane Six’s dreams. Now, if the Tantabus’ power increases, it might have enough strength to go into the real world and turn Equestria into a nightmare!!!!!!

See, this is why I like to call this episode “A Nightmare on Ponyville” because the Tantabus seems like a smokey or Equestrian version of Freddy Krueger from “A Nightmare on Elm Street”, AND ANOTHER THING, since the show makes so many references/parodies to many movies and TV shows, I was expecting “A Nightmare on Elm Street” joke/reference because of the plot. I guess I was wrong. Anyways, that night in Twilight’s Castle, Luna orders the Mane Six (except for Spike) to go to sleep, so that Luna can go inside their dreams and find a way to defeat the Tantabus, before it can turn them into nightmares and reach into the REAL Equestria. Since Spike is pointless (well, kinda), he decides to watch over our heroes, just in case. More like, “Don’t worry, guys. I’ll just sit here and increase the negative reception of me, while they have a positive reception for you Twilight, Luna, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Celestia, and other characters that we don’t need to mention.” Even I’M not surprised by that!

So, they all go to sleep and Luna goes inside Rarity’s dream, which is basically a bunch of flying dresses that turns into a bunch of monsters (thanks to the Tantabus), that come and attack Rarity. Luckily, Luna is here to stop them, until she chases the Tantabus and into Pinkie Pie’s dream. Pinkie’s dream is, well, Pinkie just walking and hopping around in her usual bright and cheery mood, while showing off locations like the Mirror Pond (from “Too Many Pinkie Pies”), The Crystal Empire (without Cadence and Shining Armor), the volcano-like area from “Dragon Quest”, Cloudsdale, etc…. The happy-go-lucky dream is interrupted, when the Tantabus turns the cakes and desserts inside Pinkie’s room at Sugarcube Corner into monsters that (of course) attack Pinkie. Once again, Luna stops the cake-creatures and chases after the Tantabus into Fluttershy’s dream, while Pinkie continues her dream with “ICE-CREAM”!!!!!!!!! Wanna know what I would do for the next few nine minutes and forty-three seconds?:

Yep, get ice cream, while losing A TON OF COLD. HARD. CASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyways, Flutteshy’s dream is having Angel, her pet bunny, being actually giant, while combing her mane. Wait a minute, this isn’t an “MLP: FIM” episode at all! It’s a “Spongebob Squarepants” episode, “Sleepy Time”, knock-off! As I was saying, the Tantabus strikes again; this time, he turns Giant Angel into a “Giant Monster” and Luna–:

–Saves Fluttershy, by flying her up to the top of a tree, while she flies into Applejack’s dream. AJ’s dream is (because of her love of apples) her polishing a giant apple (just like her giant apple as seen in the Season 4 episode, “Bats”), but the Tantabus makes it a nightmare by turning the apple trees into dying trees and turning the giant apple into a giant rotten apple. Luna chases it inside a hole in the giant rotten apple, that leads to Rainbow Dash’s dream. Rainbow’s dream is about her fighting–

THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN (“ACE ATTORNEY” STYLE, VOICE): “HOLD IT!”

THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: YOU’RE ABOUT TO SPOIL THE ANSWER TO OUR NEXT PUZZLE!!!!!!

Puzzle #001: What is Rainbow Dash’s Dream About? Click on one of the links that’ll lead you to the right answer. But be careful, choose wisely!

A.) Fighting Changelings 🙂

LINK TO ANSWER A: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9fz5OzKqhk

B.) Joining the Wonderbolts (as usual)

LINK TO ANSWER B: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cb-CtP8JKk

C.) Having an adventure with Daring Do

LINK TO ANSWER C: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9yAHKuMnBo

Now, the answer is…….A: “Fighting Changelings”!!!!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY because I LOVE THE CHANGELINGS, except that Chrysalis isn’t in this one, since she’s the queen of the Changelings. Oh well, but, congratulations to everyone who got it right, but sorry for those who got it incorrect. Now, back to the show. So, the Tantabus makes Rainbow’s “AWESOME” dream into a nightmare, by turning it into a creepy wonderland with talking sunflowers, with one playing the flute, before we move on into the final dream of everyone’s favorite leader of the Mane Six, along with Tara Strong’s character, Twilight Sparkle Sparkle Sparkle!

Because of her love of books, research, and libraries, Twilight’s dream is about her running a library, that includes flying books (like in “Harry Potter”), until it turns into a nightmare, thanks to the Tantabus, by turning the books into monster books. Luna, again, tries to save the day, by using a crystal spell (the same one Cadence used in “Princess Spike”, which is probably what the alicorn princesses use nowadays), but it backfires because the Tantabus escapes and causes the Mane Six to wake up from their nightmares. Boy, they sure were pretty surreal dreams, but I would come up with a dream or a nightmare that would be SO MUCH BETTER THAN THAT!!! Well, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna write my dream that’s ruined by the Tantabus, okay?

THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Umm, let me see here. Um. Oh, I know, how about having me being on the compute, writing a new review, while watching the upcoming sequel to “Tobias and the Half-Pariah”, titled “Tobias and the Arcane Merchant”, TheScotsmanReturns’ upcoming fan-film, “Rails to Salvation”, the rest of Season 5 of “MLP: FIM”, playing “Nancy Drew #33: Midnight in Salem” part seven and eight of Kanefan701’s “Ghost Train: The Untold Story of Timothy”, and many more!!!!!! But, the Tantabus ruins it by having Timothy the Ghost Train and a demonic-version of The Review Master come and attack me, until Luna appears and sets everything right!!!!!!!!!–

TIMOTHY THE GHOST TRAIN (DEMONIC FORM): Did somebody say my name?

THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Oh, hello, Timothy! I really wasn’t calling you, I was just writing my own dream, IF it were screwed-up by the Tantabus in today’s “MLP: FIM” episode.

TIMOTHY THE GHOST TRAIN (DEMONIC FORM): Oh yeah, the Tantabus! About that, I was friends with him in Soul High School and I was about to go ahead and reunite with him and scare little kids in their dreams, along with Freddy Krueger.

THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Really? YOU’RE FRIENDS WITH THE TANTABUS AND FREDDY KRUEGER FROM “A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET”?!– Hey, hold on, ENGINES DON’T GO TO SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!! Uh, Timothy?

TIMOTHY THE GHOST TRAIN (DEMONIC FORM): Yes?

THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Never mind.

(Reference to missoliverandblossom/DaWillstanator/William Grubb’s “T&F” Series Joke)

Anyways, Luna realizes that she’s failed in stopping the Tantabus and it’s now going to strike in Equestria at any moment. However, Twilight has an idea in stopping the Tantabus, by having everybody in Ponyville be involved in stopping it. That sounds like a risky idea, but Luna (of course) reluctantly agrees and goes into all the residents (and the Mane Six) of Ponyville’s dreams. It involves flying muffins, a Giant Derpy Hooves with cat noises, Lyra and Bon Bon as one (like a wiener dog), a pony’s head being like a balloon, a pony rowing her boat in the air, and many other strange phenomena. Also, Big Macintosh is a unicorn in this dream. Then, Luna shows up in a shield-like spell that is protecting her, while she is using her magic to defeat the Tantabus. Well, speak of the devil because the Tantabus pops up with (what it sounds like) Chewbacca sounds effects from “Star Wars” and starts attacking the dream version of Ponyville.

Luna tries to use her magic to stop it, but she’s now using up ALL her strength to prevent it from escaping into the real world and now, it’s up to the Mane Six to save Equestria (once again) and stop it, once and for all. But, the Tantabus causes even more chaos by turning houses into monsters, attacking civilians, while it’s trying to escape, while gaining more strength than ever before. Also, we get the most stunning moment to many fans alike, we get Unicorn Big Macintosh turned into “PRINCESS BIG MACINTOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

BIG MACINTOSH: Eeyup!

THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Yeah, wow.

Now, the Mane Six try to stop the Tantabus from escaping, but to no avail. Now, it’s up to the citizens of Ponyville to stop it because in dreams, you can do or think of whatever you want. That includes Spike turning into his buff form (as seen in Season 1 episode, “A Dog and Pony Show”) while riding on Giant Derpy, Scootaloo flying with giant wings (like Hawkman from DC Comics), Filthy Rich (Diamond Tiara’s father) shoot out money, having Flutterbat (Fluttershy’s Vampire Fruit Bat form from “Bats”) return, Rainbow Dash and Applejack turn into their “Power Ponies” form from Season 4 episode, “Power Ponies”, Fluttershy using Angel’s Giant Monster form, and having Twilight returning Golden Oak Library and sending flying books to stop the you-know-what.:

“OMIGOSH” indeed, Rainbow! However, none of them work and Luna is struggling to prevent the Tantabus from withdrawing from the dream world and into the real world. Then, we discover that it turns out that the Tantabus was created by Luna to punish her for being Nightmare Moon and putting Equestria into jeopardy, all those years/moons ago. After we hear Luna say negative things about failing to stop it and before we discover on why Luna created it, the Tantabus grows larger and apparently, the only thing that can give it more strength is having more Luna’s negative emotions, guilt, and suffering over her corruption. In other words, the Tantabus will be even more stronger, if Luna is still feeling guilty over being evil, and having it feed off those negative emotions. Our heroes convince Luna that she is the only way into stopping the Tantabus and she has to let go of her past and realize that she is now trustworthy by the Mane Six, Celestia, and EVERYBODY in Equestria!!!!! This causes Luna to be the hero of the episode; she sees the error of her ways, lets go of her past, which causes the Tantabus to finally be defeated/dead, while going into her chest, like her own shadow.

Everybody wakes up the next morning (except for Luna), realizing that Luna stopped the Tantabus. Way to go, Luna! Speaking of, Luna is now fast asleep, dreaming of her in a beautiful paradise, which looks more like a heavenly paradise.

So, that’s the end of “Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep” and boy was it worth waiting and watching for. I really like how they returned Luna’s relationship with the Mane Six and how we dived even more deeper into her character and how she was secretly regretting of how she was Nightmare Moon in shame and remorse, by having the Tantabus be created to punish her; more like put her in even more hatred, pain, depression, and despair, which is probably like most people who regret of sinning. However, it felt really short and it seemed like they were gonna put a cliffhanger for the next few episodes in the last few minutes (just like in “The Flash” on CW), but they actually weren’t because (as I stated earlier) there will be a hiatus (AGAIN), which will probably resume after “Friendship Games”. Also, I felt like the Tantabus’ death was rushed because all it did was just resemble Luna, before going inside Luna’s crest. Normally, I would’ve preferred a reference/joke to “A Nightmare on Elm Street” (like I said earlier) because the Tantabus really was like Hasbro or Equestria’s version of Freddy Krueger, except that it’s not a human being that’s a mixture of a farmer, Wolverine, and Indiana Jones.

However, it doesn’t stop me from liking this episode though. I do like how we get returns of Flutterbat, the Mirror Pond, Rainbow and AJ as the Power Ponies, and Spike’s buff form. All in all, I really enjoyed this episode and it’s another one of those moments when Hasbro is listening to the Brony fandom because of Princess Big Macintosh and this episode is probably one of my favorites, so far. Also, Luna returns (since she’s everyone’s, almost, and one of my favorite characters of the series), so that’s another point in it’s favor. I would make some adjustments to this episode by making it longer, having the Tantabus’ defeat being rewritten, and making “A Nightmare on Elm Street” joke, but other than that, there’s nothing else that needs to be changed. Overall, I’d give this episode an 8.5/10. As always, I’m The Detective Librarian and bring on, “Friendship Games”!

-THE END-