Castle Mane-ia

Castle Mane-ia is an episode of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. It is the third episode of the fourth season, and the sixty-eighth episode overall. The title of the episode is an allusion to Castlevania, the Konami series of video games.

Release
The episode was leaked on the Internet on 26th and 27th November 2013, extracted from the website code of the Hub Network's website Hubworld.com. These leaked copies were semi-standard definition, at 360p. This was not the first episode of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic to be leaked days ahead of its official airing, the previous ones being season two's seventeenth episode Hearts and Hooves Day and season three's seventh episode Wonderbolts Academy.

Prologue
The episode opens in Golden Oak Library; Twilight Sparkle is seen staring intently at an open book before groaning audibly and hurling the book against a wall, just as Spike enters the room. Despite having looked through every book in Ponyville, Twilight hasn't found any information about the chest that came from the Tree of Harmony in the previous episode. She considers checking the library in Canterlot when she suddenly receives a letter from Princess Celestia. She suggests that Twilight find a book hidden somewhere in the library of her and Luna's old castle in the Everfree Forest.

When Twilight and Spike reach the old library, Twilight can hardly contain her excitement. As she dives into the pile of ancient books, Spike trembles in fear of the star spiders crawling around him.

Heading to the castle
At Sweet Apple Acres, Rainbow Dash and Applejack are locked in a competition of bravery while Pinkie Pie keeps score. The current match has them in a staring contest while covered head to hoof by bees, but it's cut short when a beekeeper pony arrives to retrieve his bees. According to Pinkie's tally, Applejack and Rainbow are tied. As the two try to think of a new contest, Pinkie takes her leave of the farm, as she's promised to test the new schoolhouse bell. Applejack looks out toward the Everfree Forest and comes up with an idea.

Meanwhile, Rarity is seen trotting through the forest with Fluttershy and Angel close behind. Fluttershy is timid about being in the forest so late in the day, mentioning that it's star spider season. Rarity's reasons for being in the forest are naturally fashion-related: having heard rumors of the old castle containing ancient yet tattered tapestries, Rarity's enlisted Fluttershy's help in bringing a couple back to Carousel Boutique so she can restore them. When the two reach the old castle, Angel wanders inside on his own, prompting Fluttershy and Rarity to follow. As they enter, an unseen figure casts a shadow on the castle steps.

As Rarity marvels at the foyer's decor, Fluttershy finds Angel and warns him of the possible dangers that the castle may hold. The three enter the next chamber just as Twilight and Spike enter from an opposite corridor with a lit candelabra. Spike is disappointed to learn that Twilight intends for them to stay well into the night researching. As they too exit the foyer, Applejack and Rainbow Dash enter, having just arrived. When Rainbow asks why they're here, Applejack tells of a legend Granny Smith told her when she was a filly. When Nightmare Moon was banished to the moon, not all of her dark magic went with her, and whenever night falls on the castle, that magic would take the form of a being called the "Pony of Shadows". Naturally, Rainbow is disbelieving of such a tale.

Inside the castle
Rarity and Fluttershy come across a large worn tapestry of Princess Luna. When Fluttershy attempts to take it off the wall, she inadvertently sets off a mechanism that causes the entire wall to turn around.

On the other side of the wall, Rainbow Dash and Applejack walk by. When they see the tapestry on the wall moving and hear Fluttershy moaning behind it, they run away, screaming in terror when a figure casts its shadow on them. The wall turns back around, and Fluttershy pops out from behind the tapestry with a sprained wing. Realizing that the tapestry is too heavy to take off the wall, they resolve to find a smaller one. Rarity mentions the rotating wall to Fluttershy and concludes that the castle must have an abundance of secret doors and traps. Suddenly, they themselves fall into one when Angel sets off a pressure plate on the floor.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash gallop madly through castle corridors, considering that the legend of the Pony of Shadows might be true. Applejack says that only the most daring pony would stay in the castle all night, and the contest is decided: whoever stays inside the castle the longest wins. As they proceed down the hall, an eye in a wall painting follows their movement.

Back in the library, Twilight and Spike have yet to find anything. The sudden appearance of Angel startles Spike; he leans back in his seat, and a secret chamber opens behind a bookshelf. Inside the chamber, Twilight discovers Celestia and Luna's diary.

Twists and turns
Applejack and Rainbow Dash make their way down a spiral staircase to find a hallway lined with torch wall-mounts shaped like pony legs.

Under the trap door they fell through, Rarity and Fluttershy end up in a small hollow with nothing but a small hole in the wall. Rarity reaches her hoof through the hole... just as Rainbow Dash feels someone wrap their hoof around her. She thinks it's Applejack, but Applejack is standing several feet away. The wiggling hoof in the wall scares Applejack and Rainbow into fleeing, and Rarity panics over feeling something alive. Thinking it's Angel, Fluttershy reaches through the hole and pulls on one of the torch wall-mounts, causing the wall to spin around and free them. Rarity has reached her wit's end, and Fluttershy is still worried about Angel.

As Angel helps himself to a bowl of carrots, Twilight reads about Celestia and Luna's favorite castle traps in their diary, including the "Hall of Hooves" and the "Organ to the Outside". In a chamber far beneath her and Spike, a cloaked figure is seen in front of a pipe organ, playing several notes as Applejack and Rainbow Dash race past. Spike hears the organ playing faintly, but Twilight is too distracted by her reading to hear anything.

Fluttershy continues searching for Angel when she hears Rarity go into hysterics. She catches up with Rarity, who's found a pair of sun- and moon-themed tapestries in the throne room. Meanwhile, Applejack and Rainbow Dash wander into a hallway lined with suits of pony armor.

The cloaked figure continues playing the pipe organ, each note setting off a trap somewhere in the castle. One note separates Applejack and Rainbow Dash. Another causes Rarity to disappear behind Princess Luna's throne. The ponies' frightened screams and the organ's ominous tones fill the castle.

The Pony of Shadows
Throughout different parts of the castle, the ponies try to find the friends they were separated from. After a bit of meandering, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash each make their way to the castle foyer, erupting into screams and sobs when they bump into each other. Twilight finally hears their sounds of panic, and she and Spike go to investigate. She finds her friends in hysterics in the foyer and uses her magic to calm them down. As Twilight tries to make sense of the situation, Rainbow Dash accuses her of being the Pony of Shadows. Just then, they hear the organ playing. As one group, the ponies go to see who's playing it.

In the chamber Applejack and Rainbow Dash passed earlier, the ponies see a cloaked figure playing the organ. Twilight cautiously approaches and pulls the figure's cloak off, revealing it to be... Pinkie Pie! After completing her duty of ringing the school bell (which lasted for only five minutes) and a chain of events that saw her following Fluttershy and Rarity into the castle, Pinkie Pie decided to join her friends in what she believed to be a party.

Epilogue
The seven friends retire to the chamber that Twilight found Celestia and Luna's diary in. When asked why she wasn't afraid, Twilight says that reading the diary helped ease her fears.

"Knowing something about the past made it easier to deal with my problems in the present. Even the scary ones."

- Twilight Sparkle

Twilight then comes up with the idea of her and her friends keeping a diary of their own, so they may learn from each other and ponies who read it in the future may learn from them.

As Spike dismisses the idea of shadow ponies, a figure casts its shadow on the bookshelves in the next room and bears its glowing yellow eyes.