MLP S5E12, Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep? Review and Food for Thought

Hello my few but well informed friends! I hope you’ve been all spreading the word about me, I know I have been trying the best I can to expose myself (wait..) to every Pony site that will take me, though if you know one that I could try, tell me! 🙂

This week we’ve got quite a treat, it’s an episode called “Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?” and it’s title is a play on a novel by Phillip K. Dick, and also served to the best of my recollection, as the basis for the classic movie “Blade Runner” staring Harrison Ford! Alas, Mr. Ford isn’t in this show, though I’m sure we all wish he was!

The teaser made me laugh, as it feels like a very abridged version of every season finale in the show. We come in at the end of a classic setting for the show, where a villain is about to face down our girls, but this time, has a new super evil form to make a last stand with! This time it’s Princess Luna and she’s turning into … Nightmare Moon! Again.

So we watch the transformation only this time she makes reference to something new, as if IT were powering her transformation. As she morphs into the classic version of Moon, our girls are prepared, as they should be because this is like the third time they’ve had to deal with this. No doubt they need to utter a lesson about self love or friendship of loving your friends self or something like that and then it’s over.

Oddly enough the scene takes a turn, in a couple of ways. Never a type to shy away from promotion, Hasbro takes this moment to show off the Mane 6 powering up into their..well lets call it their super-duper friendship outfits, no doubt a new line of toys, as I can’t see why we’d need to change our outfits, and pose for a moment. The scene is epic as always but rather quick, before Stan Bush can kick in and play them an intro, the scenario turns on it’s head.

Luna, or Nightmare Moon in this case, loses her support from the new entity, and it leaves the realm, letting her get hit by the happy-glow cannon the girls all come equipped with now. Of course without fail, this fixes everything proving that if you want to help someone you need to use force…er well nevermind that, we quickly find out that this is all a dream of Princess Luna, who wakes up in distress as it is supposed to be impossible for her to have a good dream.

OMG
“Thou hath given Us an episode of thine own!?”

After the intro, we end up re-focusing on the Mane 6, who all relate to the fact that none of them had a good sleep. All of them suddenly find out that there was a blue smoke monster of some sort in all their dreams. Not certified to work on dreams, Twilight writes to Luna, who is there in an absurdly short amount of time.

Quickly Luna questions all of them and finds it even more distressing that ALL of them are seeing the monster. She informs them that this creature is meant to plague only her dreams, like a parasite that feeds from her dreams. It’s learned of the other girls from the fact Luna has dreamt of them, finally made the connection and spread like some sort of Dream Infection. Worse still, she goes on to inform them that it’s power is proportional to the number of dreams it’s in, it’s now at least 6 times stronger, and if given enough power, will escape into the real world!

So of course, the girls come up with a plan with Luna, who is no doubt thrilled to have more then three lines in the episode, and set up all of the Mane 6 in one room to sleep. As they all quickly drift off, we reach the meat of the episode. Much like Nightmare of Elm Street, any Dream episode’s real awesome story comes when we go to the dream land and see jus thow screwed up the dreams of our heroes are. If I remember correctly, Ray from Ghostbusters dreamed he was being eaten BY a pizza. But anyway, we see Luna mentally probe into all of them and we start with…

beds
There seems to be a slight disproportion in the size of the beds..so much for equality! 😛

Rarity! Whose dream is, filled with floating dresses reminiscent of a Mary Poppins homage. Quickly she finds it less them pleasing as the entity infects a dress and they all attempt to give Rarity her final fitting! Firing back, we finally see Rarity has the ability to magically defend herself. (Twilight’s quick to blast, Rarity is quick to shield, it’s odd that way..). Luna intervenes and ends up having to chase the entity through the ..er…dream walls into that of ,,,

MONSTER Dress
“Ahh! Killer Dress x_x”

Pinkie Pie! Whose extreme ADHD ensures her dreams landscape switches faster then a impatient parent with a remote control. As Luna hops in, Pinkie finds a moment to center on ..cake! Though we quickly see the entity infect her dream and the cakes start to try and eat her! (Anyone seeing a pattern? I know I did! 😉 ) Luna AoE’s the dream and hops off into a much happier place…

sonicetobethepet
I can’t believe she said that without a censor raising a single eyebrow 😛

Fluttershy’s dream! Now, lets stop for a moment and remember, most of these episodes have hidden meanings in them. No doubt they push the limit much like Animaniacs did.

So, we see Fluttershy shying happily as something brushes her, and we see it’s Angel, and he’s just HUGE. Implications aside, she tops it off by saying quite clearly “It’s so nice to be the pet for once”. Now most of you will know what this may imply, so I’m not going to go into any deep discussion about it. Though I must say, I chuckled internally as I imagined the implications. Though if my memory serves most authors tend to make Rarity the Dominatrix.

notreally
“This is all I get..another Apple Joke and then it’s on to the next scene??”

Anyway! One mutant bunny later, Luna lands inside Applejack’s dream, which oddly enough, is just about her having a huge apple. I found this disappointing, as I imagined AJ having a much wilder side she suppresses. Having her parents die early in her life, I’d assume she missed out quite a bit on fun of all manners when she was forced to grow up fast. Luna blossoms from a tree and continues the chase, this time nearly catching it as it eats the apple and flies into..

batmanbitch
Totally a Batman Homage. I love it!

Rainbow Dash’s realm, which resembles that of a Klingon training program. She’s got her hooves full fighting off Changlings left and right with a series of Batman like moves that make me glad I made her human counterpart a natural hand to hand fighter. Luna lands and makes mention that she may be too late, but Dashie informs her that this is just a normal dream for her, when suddenly…the world morphs into a happy..sunshine filled realm with singing flowers that resemble Bubbles from The Powerpuff Girls! THIS of course is her nightmare and she screams. The Princess of the Knight Night dives out and we are glad for that, as we’ve reached our final destination..

organized dream
“Huh..says here that ponies gestate for..12 months? That can’t be right…”

Twilight’s dream! No surprise here, her dream is very organized. In fact it’s a library, where she seems quite happy to study while she dreams. As the entity infects her, the world warps slightly and suddenly, you guessed it, KILLER BOOKS! They attempt to corner and … well I don’t quite know what they could do..maybe flap her to death? Regardless, Luna finally gets the upper hand and captures the entity, only to have it escape and wake everyone up!

Getting over their traumatizing moments, quickly Luna informs them that as long as no one dreams of other ponies aside from them, the entity is trapped among them. Pinkie then informs that her last dream as Luna left was sharing ice cream with..well everyone! Luna’s self loathing not withstanding, Twilight quickly formulates that Princess Luna should use her dream-linking powers to bind every pony to one giant dream (Because, that couldn’t possibly go wrong :P)

hentai

The new plan begins and Luna brings…everypony…to one central dream, including the main cast. The combined dreams every extra, supporting pony and background pony are quick a sight to be seen. Some of the highlights include a HUGE Derpy Muffins oh nevermind she’s always Derpy to me. This large Derpy is no doubt a homage to the Skyrim mod that allows ridable ponies. Derpy is just plain silly in size there too! Lyra and BonBon linked together like a reboot of Cat&Dog, and some sort of version of Big Mac that..I’m still trying to figure out…Alicorn Big Mag?!

WTF did i just see
What is this…I don’t even.. o_o

Turns out Luna can’t defeat the creature AND hold all the dreams together, so, against her pride, she finally breaks down and asks for help from her friends (Golly that sounds like a plot point) to which they respond a resounding “Sure!” (Cuz..Friendship is..well you know the rest..)

As the entity grows more powerful from the exposure to more, it starts to open a tear in sub space the dreamworld to head out and turn the reality of Equestria into a living nightmare! Much like the adventuring kids in Nightmare of Elmstreet (Pick one) the rest of the cast finds out that since it IS a dream, everyone can do what they want! This includes Filthy Rich becoming, a sorta Scrooge McDuck Super hero, Scootaloo growing bigger … wings.. and Big Mac..well I’m still trying to figure that one out.

newcatanddog
Okay this is frightening O_O

The two highlights for me is when Dashie and AJ turn into their Power Ponies personas.( Say that three times fast!). Lets face it, those personas are awesome, and were one of the main driving forces for me to write Equestrian City.

zapp
Hail Zapp!

As everything they throw at it just makes it angry, and Luna starting to wallow in self pity, the baby dragon figures out that it gets stronger when Luna goes a bit emo every now and then. Suddenly she reveals SHE made the entity to punish herself for hurting Equestria all those years ago as Nightmare Moon. She made it to ensure she never forgot, even in slumber, what she did.

aj hero
I love she kept the hat…

The lesson of the story comes barreling at us like a cannonball and Twilight and her friends all reinforce the fact that beating herself up over the past does nothing but keep the wounds sore. The only way to defeat this manifested guilt she’s fighting is to let it go, and try to move on with her life.

guilt is power
Beating yourself up over something seldom solves anything. It just makes your problem..bigger.

This is a very important lesson, I’ll admit. Not many people know how to do this, so it’s important to take a moment and take it all in. That being said, Luna suddenly learns the true meaning of Xmas er..understands what Twilight means and the entity weakens and joins back with Luna, ensuring all the chaos and evil do not make it to reality.

As everyone wakes up, everypony notices Luna asleep, and we get a glimpse into her world, where she is dreaming of..well..being asleep in a wonderful nighttime scene that must be observed for oneself.

sleepy
So once again, the dream is saved thanks to…Friendship?

Overall I give this 7 out of 10. Any episode with Luna being more then set dressing gets a boost automatically, and I grew up with Nightmare on Elmstreet so the dream setting was nice to be back in, this time not one of the CMC learning a lesson we guessed at the start of the show. Bonus points for Dashie and AJ as super heroes, and Derpy was fun too! The overall lesson was NOT shoved down your throat like some so that was pleasant, at least both demographics watching get something out of this all, and that’s all you can hope for.

Let me know what you think about this and all my other posts, I’m still trying to gain more exposure in the pony social circles so don’t forget to facebook and tweet me! Until next time, I leave you with Rainbow Dash, who upon seeing Pinkie showing off her flank, decided to show you all what a real flank was?

rump
Thats not a flank..THATS a flank!

-Watchfire 🙂

0 thoughts on “MLP S5E12, Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep? Review and Food for Thought

  1. “Some of the highlights include a HUGE Derpy Muffins oh nevermind”
    “it starts to open a tear in sub space the dreamworld”

    Are there some strikethrough jokes getting lost in formatting here?

Leave a Reply to Watchfire Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.