Too Many Pinkie Pies

Too Many Pinkie Pies is the third episode of the third season of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic and the fifty-fifth episode overall. In this episode, when overwhelmed with having to choose just one friend to spend time with, Pinkie Pie uses a magic mirror pond to clone herself, with disastrous results.

Production and release
Layout supervisor Tim Stuby wrote on Twitter that "some scenes" were pulled from the episode, specifying that no "major jokes" were pulled out but that the badger "missed his 'big scene'."

The episode was released on the iTunes Store a few hours prior to its television premiere on The Hub on November 17, 2012, 10:30 AM Eastern Time.

Prologue
The episode starts with Twilight Sparkle and Spike outside the cafe seen in The Ticket Master, attempting to turn an apple into an orange. Just as Twilight is about to cast her spell, Pinkie Pie appears and gives her a hug around the neck, causing her to shift her aim; the spell ricochets, and accidentally hits a bluebird. After a run in with Rarity, Pinkie worries that her friends could be having fun without her and dashes off, briefly visiting Rainbow Dash and Applejack and joining them in their respective activities. Pinkie then joins Fluttershy, who's simply sipping tea with Angel. Pinkie is relieved but faints due to exhaustion, saying "fun is hard" as the scene fades out.

Which one will she choose?
Pinkie Pie begins to feel better after resting in Fluttershy's "butterfly grove", and informs the Pegasus of her dilemma. However, Rainbow Dash shows up and invites Pinkie to join her after her weather work while she "catches some rays" at the lake. Coincidentally, Applejack invites Pinkie to attend her barn raising, which is scheduled for the same time, but both mares say that that it's simply an open invitation; whether she makes it or not is just fine. Pinkie, not wanting to choose between the two activities, decides to figure out how to race between the swimming hole and the farm the fastest. While doing so, she accidentally jumps on Twilight's back, causing her spell to ricochet again and hit a frog, transforming it into a orange and frog fusion. Explaining to the unicorn that she wants to basically be in two places at once, Twilight laughs and tells her the only way to do that would be if there were more of her to go around. This causes Pinkie to remember the legend of the Mirror Pool, a legendary lake underneath the Everfree Forest that can clone ponies, but she doesn't mention this specific detail to Twilight before she bounces away. Twilight knows of many legends, but is unfamiliar with this one. When Spike asks if this means that her spell practice is over, hoping she'll want to head home so she can do research on the legend, she brightly bursts his bubble.

Pinkie ventures into the Everfree Forest as she recalls the story and accompanying rhyme to find the pool, as it was taught to her by her "Nana Pinkie", reacting to her echoes and talking to herself. She accidentally falls down a hole in the ground and finds herself in an underground chamber housing the Mirror Pool. Pinkie walks over to the pool and then recites the chant to activate it, while stepping through the pool's surface. When she emerges, it's shown to not actually be her now climbing out of the water, but her own reflection having been turned into a clone of herself. Pinkie's clone starts shouting, "Fun! Fun! Fun!" and Pinkie tells her clone about Applejack and the farm. As they leave the Everfree Forest, Pinkie tells her clone that she has to meet her afterwards so she can tell her all about the fun in as much detail as possible.

Not enough Pinkie Pies...
Pinkie goes to the lake to meet Rainbow Dash, who had thought she might have gone to the barn raising instead, to which Pinkie replies that she is probably still on her way there. Rainbow scratches her head in confusion. Meanwhile, the Pinkie clone is on the way to the barn raising when she passes by Fluttershy, who calls her over and asks if she would like to come join her picnic with her animal friends. Frantic about having to miss either the barn raising or the picnic, clone Pinkie goes to fetch Pinkie Pie. The clone explains the dilemma, and worriedly concludes that being unable to choose which fun activity to do has left her with having not done anything fun at all.

Too many Pinkie Pies!
Pinkie decides the solution is for her and the clone Pinkie to go back to the Mirror Pool, and they duplicate themselves into two more Pinkie Pies. However, the three clone Pinkies decide to clone themselves into six, then twelve, then even more, each clone being less coherent than the last, culminating in a small army of Pinkies who can do nothing more than shout "Fun!"repeatedly and wreak havoc. Pinkie Pie tells them to knock it off and to follow her to Ponyville. After reassuring them it is fun there, they all hop after her. Pinkie Pie tries to keep them under control, saying they should have every nook in Ponyville covered, and quizzes them on the names of her friends, using a notepad with drawings of Applejack, Fluttershy, and herself. She tells them to fan out on three and begins counting, but they run off before she can say two, leaving her to say "Good enough."  Meanwhile, two clones tickle Rainbow Dash and make her sneeze. Rainbow Dash rubs her eyes and looks in shock as the clones wreak havoc by the pond, while the real Pinkie comes along with an inflatable raft, expecting to have fun and relax with her friend, until she sees all her clones. Rainbow Dash hides under her umbrella and chair, saying she doesn't want any more Pinkie Pies as they jump around her. Pinkie, feeling badly, runs off to check up on the barn raising at Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack, Big McIntosh, Apple Fritter and Meadow Song are raising the wall of a new barn, and are caught off guard when the Pinkie Pie clones jump around, shouting "Fun!" One of them jumps on Big McIntosh, who loses his grip on the rope. Suddenly having only three ponies on a four-pony job causes the other three to quickly lose their footing and the holds of their ropes. The entire barn framework falls apart. Pinkie Pie shows up and is happy she hasn't missed it, but Applejack angrily tells Pinkie she wants to know where all the Pinkies came from. Pinkie awkwardly runs away, and her clones skip after her as Applejack angrily calls after them to clean up the destruction. Pinkie hides behind a haystack as her clones jump off and tearfully cries out, "What have I done, what have I done!?  My poor friends!"

Outside Golden Oak Library, Twilight is telling a mob of angry citizens, who have come to her for a solution, to calm down. Rarity and Fluttershy complain about Pinkies harassing them, causing the yelling to intensify. Twilight says to hold on while she tries to figure something out, rushing back inside with Spike. While they search the shelves for an answer, Spike finds a horseshoe embedded into the back of a bookshelf. He presses it and the back slides upward, revealing a dusty, old book. Twilight reads the book and learns of a spell that can send all the clones back. The only risk is that if they can't identify the real Pinkie Pie, they could send her into the lake by mistake, as the spell cannot tell the difference between a clone and a natural pony.

Finding the real Pinkie Pie
Twilight and Spike run outside and ask the ponies if they know who the real Pinkie Pie is. The crowd is at a loss of how they could do so. Pinkie arrives and making her way to the front of the crowd, tries to ask Twilight for her help. Twilight tells Pinkie (as a clone runs over and mimics her) that she's not talking to any Pinkie unless she's dealing with the real one. Pinkie protests that she is the real Pinkie, only to have the name set off the clones as they run eagerly to the library and claim that they're the real one. The citizens run back to their homes and lock the doors. Twilight and Spike continue to find a way to send the clones back without sending their friend back in the process. Her very friends' inability to tell one Pinkie from another discourages Pinkie and she becomes depressed. Soon, she cannot tell if she is the real one herself.

Twilight and Spike see the depressed Pinkie outside the cafe. Twilight figures that she's not the real one because Pinkie Pie has never sat that long in one place her entire life. As they walk away, Pinkie suggests they use a test to find the real Pinkie by making them do something very simple, but isn't fun at all. The Pinkie that wants to stay badly enough to make it to the end is the real one. Twilight decides that it's a good plan, and goes to implement it. Pinkie is initially thrilled that the problem can be fixed, but soon worries that she won't pass the test and will have to leave her friends. Twilight finds Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Rarity holed up with the woodland creatures until the "Pinkie storm" dies down. Twilight has them come with her to help with the plan, while the Apple siblings and their dog Winona round up all the Pinkies and herd them into the town hall (with the real one being carried in by Rainbow Dash because she was too depressed to come), and Big McIntosh and Apple Bloom shutting them in once their sister enters. Twilight makes the clones quiet down and sit in rows before she announces the test: to their collective horror, it's watching purple paint dry, freshly prepared by Rarity and Fluttershy on a backdrop wall. Nevertheless, the multitude of Pinkies anxiously leans forward when Twilight begins the test, eyes fixed on the paint.

Time passes, and with no sources of stimulation nearby other than the paint, the attention span of the clones begins to flag and break. A clone in the front row looks out the window and says, "Oh, hey, look at the birdie!" Twilight instantly zaps her with a beam of magic, inflating her like a balloon and collapsing her into a wisp of pink light that flies to the Everfree Forest and vanishes back into the pool. Unable to withstand the insipid test, another clone calls out to the others to watch her try to bounce and touch the ceiling; Twilight zaps both her and the clone that turns to watch her. Yet another three clones are distracted by the transformed frog with an orange for a body croaking outside the window. A clone shows her neighbor how she can inflate her hoof so that tiny finger-like projections pop out from her other hoof; they are both sent away. One of the remaining clones says, "Betcha can't make a face crazier than this!", vigorously rubs her face and changes her appearance to that of a Generation 3 Pinkie Pie. Twilight continues to rapidly eliminate clones until only two Pinkies remain. Rainbow Dash loses her patience and distracts the final clone by suddenly saying that she can see somepony making balloon animals. The distracted Pinkie is sent back to the lake, leaving only a single, concentrated Pinkie Pie who is still staring at the wall. She is the real one. Twilight says that she can look away, and Pinkie checks to see if she's the real one. Then she says she is.

Pinkie Pie finally chooses what she wants to do
After everything is settled, Pinkie dictates her letter to Princess Celestia in her bedroom at Sugarcube Corner. Having learned that she sometimes has to choose which of her friends she'll spend time with and that even if she can't spend time with one friend, they'll always have more opportunities to spend time together. As we hear Pinkie's letter we see her spend time with Rainbow Dash, help Applejack with her barn raising and leads Twilight and Big McIntosh, carting a boulder for Twilight, back through the Everfree Forest to close up the entrance to the Mirror Pool, just to be sure it never happens again. Once the letter is sent, Pinkie's friends gather outside Sugarcube Corner and propose several activities, but Pinkie just wants to sleep and does so in the middle of the shop floor. Fluttershy jokes that it looks fun, and everyone laughs. Twilight then uses her magic to close the door, so Pinkie can rest in peace.

Quotes

 * Spike: We weren't going to turn her into an orange! I swear!


 * Pinkie Pie: Fluttershy! [catches breath] There... you... are...! Doing... [deep breath] anything... [deep breath] fun?
 * Fluttershy: Not especially.
 * Pinkie Pie: Okay. Fun... is hard...! [sighs]


 * Pinkie Pie: Oh, but wait- I just told myself to not talk to myself any more. I should say something to her. Or... would that still be talking to myself? Excuse me, me? Can I have a word with you? Uh, I mean, me? Listen, I can see you're having lots of fun, but-
 * Pinkie Pie 2: Fun?! Did somebody say fun? Where?


 * Pinkie Pie 2: Wait, but that sounds super fun! Oh, but Applejohn sounds super fun too! Uh, and, and, I can't do one without missing out on the other!
 * Fluttershy: ...who's Applejohn?


 * Pinkie Pie 2: Two fun things, at once? But which, which? Oh, can't decide... [breathes heavily] Trouble breathing... walls closing in!
 * Fluttershy: Walls? But we're outside.


 * Pinkie Pie 2: Look, a double me!
 * Pinkie Pie: I think you mean a double-double me. Plus another double-double me, which makes two double-double mes, or a double-double-double me, if you will.


 * All Pinkie Pies: Fun! Fun! Fun! Fun! Fun!


 * Spike: So, lemme guess. You're the real Pinkie Pie.
 * Pinkie Pie: Heck if I know. Could be any one of us, if you ask me. And if I said I was the real Pinkie, you wouldn't even believe me anyway. So just leave me alone. I've got some important poking around with my hoof to do.


 * Twilight Sparkle: Pinkies, you've been brought here to take a test.
 * Pinkie Pie Duplicates: [in chorus] Awwww.
 * Twilight Sparkle: Don't worry, it's a simple test, about as simple as they come, and whoever passes gets to stay.
 * [Duplicates making huh noises]
 * Twilight Sparkle: Curtain, please. The test will be watching paint dry!


 * Spike: Ooh, this is so exciting! [break] Okay, maybe not that exciting.


 * Pinkie Pie Duplicate: Betcha can't make a face crazier than... THIS! [has G3 Pinkie face]


 * Rainbow Dash: Somepony's making balloon animals!


 * Pinkie Pie: I'm me! I'm me! I'm me!! Or am I? Yeah, I'm pretty sure I am.