Read It and Weep

Read It and Weep is the sixteenth episode of the second season of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, and the forty-second episode overall. Rainbow Dash discovers the joy of reading when she is laid up in the hospital, but she hides it from her friends due to her former penchant of mocking it as an "egghead" pursuit.

Summary
The beginning of the episode shows Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle watching Rainbow Dash fly around and do tricks. All three of them watch on in admiration, with Pinkie Pie going as far to twist her neck around to keep track of Rainbow Dash's flight. However, Rainbow Dash suddenly crashes into the ground, and the trio watching start to look worried.

Rainbow Dash then wakes up in the hospital in a daze, with her friends around to see her. When told that she will be in the hospital for a few days minimum, she responds negatively saying that it might as well be a few months or years. However, her friends offer her help and motivation, saying that the chowder is "hoof-licking good" and that the hospital gowns "match the curtains". Twilight then gives her the book Daring-Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone, recommending her to read it. However, Rainbow Dash hastily rejects to read it, saying that reading is for "eggheads", and calling Twilight an egghead in the process. Her friends chuckle at her view of reading, saying that everyone enjoys reading from time to time.

After her friends leave so Rainbow Dash can get her rest, Rainbow Dash is shown bouncing a ball off the wall, eating her food, turning a lamp on and off, and telling jokes to a roommate to pass the time. However, none of these work out for her, so she reluctantly decides to read the book.

As she starts reading the book, the episode cuts to a widescreen portrayal of the story. Daring-Do, a brown-coated, grey-maned pony with the same style as Rainbow Dash herself, is first seen surrounded by a variety of wild cats, ranging from a large tiger to a small kitty cat. Daring-Do makes a run from the wild cats, using a vine to swing across a ravine. She then comes to the entrance of a vault.

Rainbow Dash's reading session is interrupted with Fluttershy and Twilight enter with a board game to play. Rainbow Dash quickly pretends to lose in order to get them to leave so she can return back to her book. When she "loses", she packs the game away messily into the box and Twilight and Fluttershy leave quickly. When they leave, she whips her book out of her blanket and begins to read again.

Daring-Do comes to a tile trap, which is triggered by stepping on any tile other than a tile with a rat on it, which Daring-Do works out by noticing that every other tile has a carving of a predator on it. After she jumps across the tiles, she comes to the Sapphire Stone, which she examines closely, but quickly grabs and puts in her hat. Unfortunately, the Sapphire Stone was trapped, and this trap triggers the floor to fall away, revealing a pit of lava. Daring-Do manages to jump through a hole in the ceiling, being blasted away by steam in the process. She then crash-lands in the jungle.

Suddenly, Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Rarity enter her hospital room. They ask how she's feeling. A nurse arrives with Rainbow Dash's food, and when her friends say she can eat while they're there, she begins to eat her food messily and rudely, which eventually prompts her friends to leave the room.

Quote
Rainbow Dash:...To get to the other side! Get it?

Rainbow Dash: I'm an egghead!

Rainbow Dash: You win some, you lose some.

Gallery

 * Read It and Weep image gallery

Trivia

 * The board game Rainbow Dash plays with Fluttershy and Twilight bears a close resemblance to Battleship.