Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?

Plot

The Mane Six all experience nightmares featuring the same blue smoke creature, leading Twilight Sparkle to contact Princess Luna. Luna explains the creature is the Tantabus, a parasitic nightmare entity that feeds on dreams and grows stronger, threatening to escape into the real world and transform Equestria into a living nightmare. The Tantabus entered their dreams after escaping from Luna's own nightmares. Luna enters their dreams to pursue it as it torments each pony. When Pinkie Pie's dream exposes all of Ponyville to the Tantabus, Luna creates a massive shared dream to contain it, straining her magic. The ponies unite using dream logic, transforming into powerful forms to fight the threat. Luna's guilt strengthens the Tantabus until she admits she created it as self-punishment for her past as Nightmare Moon. With Twilight's help, Luna forgives herself, reabsorbs the creature, and experiences her first peaceful sleep in years.

Broadcast and reception

Airing to an audience of 418,000 viewers, which represented about 0.25 percent of American households, this episode later earned the 2016 Leo Award for Best Overall Sound in an Animation Program or Series. The award went to Marcel Duperreault, Todd Araki, Jason Fredrickson, Kirk Furniss, Adam McGhie, Christine Church, and Roger Monk. Sherilyn Connelly, who wrote Ponyville Confidential, gave the episode a B+. Tyler B. Searle of Collider called it the darkest episode in kids' cartoons, pointing out that although the show is aimed at young children, it sometimes explores heavier subjects. He noted the episode deals with the risks of clinging to guilt and how letting others in is the first step toward acceptance. Daniel Alvarez of Unleash The Fanboy rated it 8 out of 10, finding it entertaining but criticizing it for feeling rushed and like two episodes squeezed into one. He praised the fan-driven scenes and described the message about self-forgiveness as one of the show's finest.

At a BronyCon panel covered by The Washington Post, an attendee named Jones was so moved by the episode that he needed a moment to compose himself after showing a clip. He explained that the story, where Luna forgives herself for creating the Tantabus to punish herself for past wrongs, crystallized everything he needed to understand about getting sober and pulled him back from the edge of suicide. In a critical analysis, author Jen A. Blue examined Luna's guilt and self-punishment, arguing that the Tantabus represents Luna's own Shadow and that self-imposed penance is a form of denying that Shadow. Blue distinguished between penance and making amends: penance increases suffering, while making amends aims to heal harm. She wrote that Luna's self-punishment only strengthens her guilt and makes the Tantabus more powerful. Blue interpreted the episode as a classic confrontation with the Shadow, concluding that the only thing preventing Luna from becoming Nightmare Moon again is her own choice not to. Redemption, she argued, requires accepting one's capacity for wrongdoing rather than rejecting it. Blue concluded that guilt acts as a moral alarm, but wallowing in it is counterproductive, and true peace comes from accepting guilt and using it for growth rather than self-punishment.

In popular culture

In July 2016, the episode gained attention when Republican National Committee communications director Sean Spicer quoted Twilight Sparkle's line This is your dream, anything you can do in your dreams you can do now during a CNN interview. Spicer used the quote to defend Melania Trump against accusations that her Republican National Convention speech had plagiarized portions of Michelle Obama's 2008 Democratic National Convention speech, arguing that similar phrases appear across many sources and rhetorically asking whether Obama had plagiarized the My Little Pony character. No disciplinary action was taken by Donald Trump's campaign as a result of the controversy.