Look Before You Sleep

Look Before You Sleep is the eighth episode of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, season one. In this episode, Applejack, and Rarity are forced to stay at Twilight Sparkle's for the night due to a thunderstorm. Twilight takes this opportunity to drag them into having a slumber party. The title of the episode is a play on the saying look before you leap, meaning acting only after careful planning.

Production
This episode's slumber party subplot is very similar to the SpongeBob SquarePants episode, Party Pooper Pants, in that both Twilight and SpongeBob try to throw parties "by the book". Twilight's party is more lenient as she only consults the book for fun ideas, whereas SpongeBob uses it to plan out every minute. This episode also has the smallest cast in season one. Four of the show's main characters – Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Spike do not appear, and only a few background ponies appear in the opening scene.

Opening sequence
Due to an impending thunderstorm in Ponyville, trees are being pruned to avoid damaging the town. Working as a team, Applejack and Rarity attempt to speed up the process but are caught in the storm. Unable to go home because of the storm's intensity, they're forced to stay at Twilight's for the night.

The slumber party
"Slumber 101: All you ever wanted know about slumber parties but were afraid to ask."

- Rarity reading Twilight's book

Twilight Sparkle invites them to stay at her place until the storm is over. She says she is on her own while Spike is back in Canterlot on "royal business". Twilight Sparklesees this as an opportunity to set up her first-ever slumber party, using a book about slumber parties she owns as a checklist. The title of Twilight Sparkle's book "Slumber 101: All You've Ever Wanted to Know About Slumber Parties But Were Afraid to Ask" is a title parody of the 1972 Woody Allen film Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) and the book of the same name. Rarity and Applejack, wary about spending the night together, decide to try and get along because they don't want to "ruin" Twilight Sparkle's first slumber party. But their clashing personalities make this no easy task. All throughout the night Rarity and Applejack but heads, starting with dissenting views about the make overs that start the night's activities. During the ghost stories, Rarity and Applejack suggest stories that allude to why they don't like each other. The lights go out and Twilight Sparkle tells the tale of The Headless Horse, which is a play on the story The Headless Horseman, succeeding in scaring both Rarity and Applejack. They continue to clash when they move on to making smore's. And when they play truth or dare, they use it against each other; Applejack daring Rarity to get her mane all wet and ruined, Rarity daring Applejack to dress in a rediculous gown, eventually they wind up just yelling at each other. Sensing conflict, Twilight Sparkle tries to keep things moving to avoid escalaton, unfortunatly they move on to a pillow fight, which in no time turns into an all out pillow war between Rarity and Applejack. Twilight Sparkle, thouroughly bombarded by pillows suggest that they just go to bed.

Their petty arguing and fighting continue even when the ponies try to go to bed. At this point, Twilight Sparkle interrupts their bickering, upset that her friends are fighting too much to have any fun, hence ruining her slumber party. Just as Twilight Sparkle asks if there is "anything else that can possibly go wrong", a nearby tree is hit by lightning and begins to topple towards a neighboring house. Applejack, not heeding a warning from Rarity, lassos the falling tree, but instead of stabilizing, it crashes through Twilight's bedroom window instead. Rarity focuses on cleaning up the mess of books, and Applejack tries to push the tree back out of the window while Twilight Sparkle desperately searches through her slumber party book for a section on dealing with fallen trees in the middle of the bedroom.

When Applejack fails to move the tree out on her own, she eventually appologizes to Rarity about her habit of attention to detail and convinces her to focus on helping her with the bigger task instead, and not worry about getting her hooves dirty. Rarity uses her unicorn magic to turn the tree top into tiny bush sculptures, clearing the house at the price of getting dirt all over her; Applejack then proceeded to gently toss the broken trunk section out the window and close it.

Ending
With the storm (and their differences) finally settled, Applejack, Rarity and Twilight Sparkle finally have fun. In the end, Twilight Sparkle officially declares the slumber party a success. She attempts to plan another slumber party the following night but gets a pillow thrown in her face. The episode closes as the sky clears up, revealing a bright sunny day.

Quotes

 * Rarity: You know, there's messy, and then there's just plain rude.
 * Applejack: You know, there's fussy, and there's just plain gettin' on my nerves.


 * Applejack: I'd like to tell ya'll the terrifying tale of the prissy ghost, who drove everypony crazy with her unnecessary neatness! OooooOOwwoOOO! I'm sure ya'll are familiar with that one?
 * Rarity: Never heard of it. But I have a much better one... It's the horrifying story of the messy inconsiderate ghost, who irritated everypony within a hundred miles! OoooooOOOwwwwOOOoo...
 * Applejack: That's not a real story. You made it up!
 * Rarity: It is a ghost story. They're all made up...


 * Rarity: You could at least say "excuse me".
 * Applejack: Oh, I was about to! But you interrupted me! ...Pardon.


 * Twilight Sparkle: Now the next item of fun we have to do is... "truth or dare"...
 * Rarity: I dare Applejack to do something carefully and neatly for a change.
 * Applejack: Oh yeah? Well, I dare Rarity to lighten up, and stop obssessin' over every... last... little... detail... For a change.
 * Rarity: I think the truth of the matter is that somepony could stand to pay a little more attention to detail.
 * Applejack: And I think the truth is somepony outta quit with her fussin', so the rest of us can get things done!


 * Applejack: I dare you to step outside and let your precious tidy mane get ruined again!
 * Twilight Sparkle: You have to. It's the rule...
 * Applejack: Hah!
 * Rarity: Fine!


 * Rarity: OK. I dare Applejack to play "dress-up" in a frou-frou, glittery, lacey outfit!
 * Applejack: (with big dress) Happy?
 * Rarity: Very...


 * Rarity: (after getting hit in the face with a pillow) IT! IS! ON!


 * Rarity: You did that on purpose.
 * Applejack: Um, yeah.
 * Rarity: Get up so I can fix it again.
 * Applejack: Can't hear ya, I'm asleep. [snore]


 * Applejack: I... ain't... budgin'!


 * Applejack: And that, my friends, is called "gettin' 'er done"...


 * Twilight Sparkle: Oh, pretty! Where did these come from? They're not in the book either.


 * Applejack: Is it... a six-legged pony with a purple polka-dotted mane and shootin' stars comin' out of his eyes?
 * Rarity: Who flies through the air all over the world to hide magic, sparkly eggs?
 * Twilight Sparkle: That's it!
 * Applejack and Rarity: It is?
 * Twilight Sparkle: No.

Gallery

 * Look Before You Sleep image gallery