"Look Before You Sleep" is the eighth episode of the first season of the

animated television series An animated series, or a cartoon series, is a set of Animation, animated films with a common title, usually related to one another. These episodes typically share the same main heroes, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series ...

'' My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic''. It originally aired on

The Hub The Hub may refer to: Places * The Hub, Bronx, an area of the South Bronx, New York, known for its convergence of subway and bus lines * The Hub (Edinburgh), former church in Edinburgh that is now home to the Edinburgh International Festival * T ...

on December 3, 2010. The episode was written by Charlotte Fullerton. In this episode,

Applejack AppleJack was a command-line interface for Mac OS X that provided a simplified user interface for single user mode system repairs. It allowed for permission repair, disk repair, cache cleaning, validation of preference- and property list file ...

and Rarity have a conflict over their different approaches to work while preparing for a thunderstorm, leading to an impromptu slumber party at

Twilight Sparkle Princess Twilight Sparkle is a fictional character who appears in the fourth incarnation of Hasbro's ''My Little Pony'' toyline and media franchise, beginning with '' My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic'' (2010–2019), and later in the fra ...

's library where they must learn to work together.

Plot

While working to prune trees in preparation for a rainstorm,

and Rarity fall into a heated disagreement about each other's methods and approaches to the task. When rain begins to fall, they argue over suitable shelter until

invites them to stay in the Golden Oak Library for the duration of the storm. With

Spike Spike, spikes, or spiking may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Books * ''The Spike'' (novel), a novel by Arnaud de Borchgrave * ''The Spike'' (Broderick book), a nonfiction book by Damien Broderick * ''The Spike'', a starship in Peter ...

away on royal business, Twilight finds herself alone for the evening and sees the situation as a perfect opportunity to host her very first slumber party. Applejack and Rarity show little enthusiasm for spending an entire evening in each other's company but find themselves unable to leave due to the worsening weather conditions outside. Following a book about sleepovers, Twilight initiates a series of slumber party activities for the group to enjoy together. They tell

ghost stories A ghost story is any piece of fiction, or drama, that includes a ghost, or simply takes as a premise the possibility of ghosts or characters' belief in them."Ghost Stories" in Margaret Drabble (ed.), ''Oxford Companion to English Literature''. ...

, make

s'mores A s'more (alternatively spelled smore, pronounced , or ) is a confection consisting of toasted marshmallow and chocolate sandwiched between two pieces of graham crackers. S'mores are popular in the United States and Canada, and are traditionally ...

, and play

truth or dare Truth or dare? is a mostly verbal party game requiring two or more players. Players are given the choice between answering a question truthfully, or performing a "dare". The game is particularly popular among adolescents and children, and is so ...

, but Applejack and Rarity continue to bicker throughout the activities. The situation reaches a breaking point when a

pillow fight A pillow fight is a common game mostly played by young children (but also by teens and adults) in which they engage in mock physical conflict, using pillows as weapons. Pillow fights often occur during children's sleepovers. Since pillows ...

escalates into a pillow war, with Twilight caught in the middle. Twilight suggests they call it a night and the three head to bed. In the upstairs bedroom, Applejack and Rarity continue their feud by fighting over control of the bedsheets, which prompts an exasperated Twilight to chastise them for ruining her slumber party with their relentless arguing. Just then, lightning strikes a nearby tree and causes it to topple towards a neighboring house. Applejack attempts to use her

lasso A lasso or lazo ( or ), also called reata or la reata in Mexico, and in the United States riata or lariat (from Mexican Spanish lasso for roping cattle), is a loop of rope designed as a restraint to be thrown around a target and tightened when ...

to stabilize the falling tree but accidentally pulls it through Twilight's bedroom window instead. As the two ponies blame each other for the incident and Twilight desperately searches her slumber party book for guidance, Applejack realizes the need for cooperation to solve their problem. She apologizes to Rarity and accepts responsibility for the situation, which prompts Rarity to accept the apology and work together with her to clear the tree from the room. With their differences finally settled, the three friends conclude the evening with a peaceful game of Twenty Questions. Twilight officially declares the slumber party a success.

Reception and analysis

Sherilyn Connelly, the author of ''Ponyville Confidential'', gave the episode an "A+" rating and called it "the first truly great episode". She praised the uniqueness of the episode as a

bottle episode In episodic television, a bottle episode or bottle show is an episode produced cheaply and restricted in scope to use as few regular cast members, effects and sets as possible. Bottle episodes are usually shot on sets built for other episodes, fr ...

, and wrote that the decision to do so was "fitting for a story which could be performed on stage"; "it’s also the talkiest episode to date, but every word counts as Rarity and Applejack verbally slash at each other like characters in a

Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of Realism (theatre), realism, earlier associated with ...

play." In her review of the episode in ''

SF Weekly ''SF Weekly'' is an online music publication and formerly alternative weekly newspaper founded in the 1970s in San Francisco, California. It was distributed every Thursday, and was published by the San Francisco Print Media Company. The paper ha ...

'', she wrote, "Twilight concludes that ponies with nothing in common (say, butches and femmes) can get along, if they embrace each other's differences. It's not a lesson that Twilight needed to learn, exactly, but she's the only one writing the letters—for now." In a critical analysis of the episode, author Jen A. Blue examined "Look Before You Sleep" through the lens of

kyriarchy In feminist theory, kyriarchy () is a social system or set of connecting social systems built around domination, oppression, and submission. The word was coined by Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza in 1992 to describe her theory of interconnected, ...

and

intersectionality Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how groups' and individuals' social and political identities result in unique combinations of discrimination and privilege. Examples of these intersecting and overlapping factor ...

, particularly around how the episode explores how

gender Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...

intersects with other social identities. Blue interpreted the three main characters as representatives of different

social groups In the social sciences, a social group is defined as two or more people who interact with one another, share similar characteristics, and collectively have a sense of unity. Regardless, social groups come in a myriad of sizes and varieties. Fo ...

: Rarity as someone with "conscious affectations of someone trying to rise above

middle-class The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Commo ...

beginnings," Applejack as representing rural values despite her family's actual wealth and power, and Twilight as a member of the "pony

intelligentsia The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the i ...

." Blue wrote that Twilight's use of a slumber party rulebook was an attempt to unite the clashing characters through "common

femininity Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and Gender roles, roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as Social construction of gender, socially constructed, and there is also s ...

", but criticized it as "declaring and enforcing a set of arbitrary rules that constrain femininity." When Applejack risks

social status Social status is the relative level of social value a person is considered to possess. Such social value includes respect, honour, honor, assumed competence, and deference. On one hand, social scientists view status as a "reward" for group members ...

by asking Rarity for help, Blue understood this as showing how external forces can temporarily break down normative constraints and allows characters to work together as equals. Blue noted that the episode's ending hints at potential future conflicts when Rarity and Applejack compete over "who is more sorry," which Blue described as "possibly a ponified version of the so-called '

Oppression Olympics ''Oppression Olympics'' is a critical term for a type of perceived victim mentality that views marginalization as a competition to determine the relative weight of the overall oppression of individuals or groups, often by comparing race, gender, ...

.'"

Home media

The episode is part of the Season 1 DVD set, released by

Shout Factory Shout! Factory, LLC, doing business as Shout! Studios (formerly doing business as Shout! Factory, its current legal name), is an American home video and music distributor founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases, issued i ...

, on December 4, 2012.

References

Bibliography

External links