Felt so good getting an Ushio & Tora recap up early today. Suddenly, “Oh crap, it’s Friendship Friday, isn’t it?”
This is the last episode before a lengthy hiatus. Wherever shall I get my pony fix until October? But hey, at least we’re going out on a LUNA EPISODE!
We begin with Luna transforming into Nightmare Moon, then being defeated by the Mane 6 after they tap into their Rainbow Powers. But it was a dream. And… it ended happily. And… that’s a bad thing. Primarily because a certain black creature named the Tantibus escaped from her dream.
The next morning, the Mane 6 are sleepy and learn they all had the same nightmare about a “blue smoke monster.” They send a letter to Princess Luna about it, and she immediately comes to tell them about the Tantibus: a monster of Luna’s nightmares that can, if it grows in power, escape into the real world and turn it into a living nightmare. So… they gotta do something about it. Since Luna dreamed about the Mane 6, the Tantibus can now enter their dreams. So Luna enters their dreams in search of the Tantibus in an effort to stop it.
The Mane 6’s nightmares are… actually probably the worst part of this episode, so let’s skip to the third act. In Pinkie’s dream, she dreamed of all of Ponyville. So… yeah, that complicates matters. Twilight suggests to Luna that she create a shared dream among all of Ponyville, and that’s precisely what she does.
It doesn’t take long for the Tantibus to appear and start making nightmares left and right. Everyone changes into whatever they want since they can be anything in their dreams, and we’re treated to the entire reason this episode was made: so the animators could do whatever the fuck they wanted.
Everyone works hard to prevent the Tantibus from escaping into the real world, but Luna’s guilt seems to make it stronger and more powerful than ever.
Luna reveals that she created the Tantibus to give herself the same nightmare every night to punish her for what she did as Nightmare Moon. So… Masochistic Luna seems to be canon now. Huh. Twilight then gets it into Luna’s head that since she’s trying so hard to prevent nightmares, she’s definitely learned a lot since she was Nightmare Moon. Luna learns to forgive herself and accepts the Tantibus back into her… I guess…
And that night, Luna finally has a pleasant dream…
To be honest, this entire episode itself is its own meme.
Going by popularity alone, I’d probably have to pick Lybon (the dream fusion of Lyra and Bon Bon).
Aquagalaxy made this AMAZING image of Luna and the Tanbibus. So beautiful.
There’s really no other choice to make here. Princess Luna all the way. With an honorable mention to the Tantibus.
It will be months without a new episode, and the only thing to sate us in the meantime will be reruns and the third Equestria Girls movie. Which I am looking forward to. Dat SciTwi. More Sunset Shimmer. Mmmm….