SPOILERS? Mariusioannesp Reviews: "28 Pranks Later"

WARNING!!! The following contains SPOILERS for the latest MLP episode “28 Pranks Later”.

Now, without further a-prank-gone-wrong-do, here is my review of “28 Pranks Later”.

Rainbow Dash is on a bit of a pranking streak. She thinks she’s just having fun with everypony. Not everypony agrees. However, when Rainbow attempts to prank the entire town of Ponyville, her actions have extremely dire consequences. Dire consequences of the zombie apocalypse variety! Will Rainbow Dash realize when a prank has gone too far?

So, what’s the verdict?

Well, I can’t say I liked this episode, but I can’t say I didn’t like it. I don’t know. This episode was I don’t know.

So yeah, I don’t know.

Well, that’s a first certainly. It’s got that going for it.

Let us begin once more at the beginning. Fluttershy is walking home through some dark and scary woods with her animal friends after having lost track of time at a picnic.

I will say that these dark and scary woods are animated quite well. She then notices that there appears to be some monster stalking them in the shadows, and they all freak out! (Despite the fact that one of them is a bear.)


Turns out this draconic beast Rainbow Dash, pulling a prank on them.

Yeah, wonderful.

Fluttershy is not amused. Dare I say, she’s…. Peeved!…. Excuse my language.

She’s all hyperventilated and teary-eyed.

Rainbow though thinks this is totally funny and too easy since Fluttershy is afraid of everything. By just saying “boo”, she manages to send Fluttershy flying into a tree.

Yeah, this is a great way to start an episode like this by having Rainbow scare the bejebus out of Fluttershy.

The next day, Fluttershy has called the Mane 6 to a meeting in the throne room of the Castle of Friendship. Rainbow is still pretty proud of herself over her prank, but Fluttershy still doesn’t appreciate being scared like that. Pinkie Pie though defends Rainbow’s prank, arguing that being scared can be fun. Interestingly enough, Pinkie also thought being scared was fun in Season 2’s “Luna Eclipsed”, but she was against pranking Fluttershy in Season 1’s “Griffon the Brush Off”. I don’t know what to make of that. Anyway, Rarity points out that Fluttershy wouldn’t have called them all there if she had thought Rainbow’s prank was funny. Applejack adds that pranking Fluttershy is lazy, presumably because of how easy she scares. Honestly Applejack, I didn’t think you’d be so callous about it. Twilight Sparkle points out that a prank is not funny if only one pony is laughing, and that care must be taken to make sure the prank is the kind of thing the other pony would think is funny. That’s when Twilight sits on her throne and right on a whoopee cushion. Rainbow and Pinkie just laugh it up. Twilight is unamused.

Applejack adds that a whoopee cushion is just a joke shortcut, and Rarity insists that if Rainbow wasn’t going to put the effort to pull a prank everypony can enjoy, then she shouldn’t even bother at all. Rainbow then goes off to show everypony that she can put in that effort, and everypony else is left wondering if Rainbow even understood what they meant. I’ll admit this was my favorite part of this episode because I enjoyed this philosophical discussion on the nature of pranks.

Later on, Rarity is with Sweetie Belle getting ready to put the finishing touches on Sweetie’s Filly Guide uniform in preparation for the big cookie drive the Filly Guides will be doing. She finds the aforementioned uniform perched on top of a giant cake with a note from Rainbow saying, “You asked for it.” Rarity presumes that Rainbow has booby-trapped the uniform so she goes to her sewing machine to just make a new uniform. That’s when she discovers that her sewing machine is also cake. Well, at least Sweetie likes both the cakes.

Even later, Applejack is getting ready for bed, and she has hung pots and pans everywhere. She’s determined to not let Rainbow get the drop on her. So, she goes to sleep, but the next morning she wakes up with a pig in her bed!

In fact, her whole bed has been moved to the middle of her pig pen.

After that, Rainbow goes on a bit of prank spree. She replaces Cranky Doodle Donkey’s river serpent moustache toupee with a skunk that sprays all over him. (Yes, Cranky Doodle Donkey is in this episode.) Then while Spike is sending a scroll to Princess Celestia, Rainbow starts dropping identical looking scrolls from above so that it seems like it didn’t send. Princess Celestia’s throne room ends up flooded with scrolls! (Yes, Princess Celestia is in this episode too. This is like the second episode with both Cranky Doodle and Celestia in it.)

I admit this is my favorite prank.

You ever see this prank where a guy is shampooing his hair in the shower, and this other dude sneaks up on him and keeps putting shampoo in his hair so it seems he hasn’t gotten it all out yet. This is like that.

Moving on, Rainbow then drops a boulder in Big McIntosh’s cart as he’s walking up a hill so he ends up rolling back down. Then, she somehow puts a brick in a hayburger Mr. Cake is eating! How do you hide a brick in a burger?! Then she scrawls a doodle of a smelly Cheerilee on the backside of Cheerilee’s chalkboard that her whole class sees and laughs at.

After all this nonsense, all of Rainbow’s victims congregate at Sugarcube Corner where their ringleader Twilight insists that Pinkie needs to help them put an end to Rainbow’s pranking. Pinkie doesn’t see Rainbow’s pranks as much of a problem, admitting that Rainbow and her alligator Gummy even got her. Rainbow and Gummy were apparently hanging upside down in her closet.

Pinkie reacts accordingly.

Still, everypony wants Rainbow to stop. They all figured that since Pinkie also shares Rainbow’s affinity for pranking, she’s the best pony to tell her to stop it.

Reluctantly, Pinkie goes to Rainbow’s cloud home to try and convince her to put an end to her pranks. That’s when Rainbow reveals to Pinkie her latest prank idea though. Tired of pranking everypony one at time, Rainbow wants to prank everypony in town at once. She’s ordered these joke cookies that will turn ponies’ mouths rainbow-colored when they eat them, and she’s going to switch them out with the Filly Guide cookies.

I’m a bit of a cookie connoisseur, and I must say those cookies look delicious.

Anyway, Pinkie admits that this cookie prank doesn’t seem as funny. She tries to dissuade Rainbow from moving forward with it and just take a break from pranking in general. Rainbow though insists on going through with it because of how epic it will be. The next day, Rainbow goes to find Pinkie because she was supposed to help her switch out the cookies. However, it seems Pinkie is feeling a little under the weather.

She’s all ashy and her mouth is still pretty rainbow-colored. The only thing that makes her feel better is eating Rainbow’s joke cookies. This is odd. Despite Pinkie’s state, Rainbow actually tries to drag Pinkie out of bed so she can see the prank go down. Pinkie doesn’t think she can even stand up… Unless Rainbow has more of those cookies. I take that back. This is really odd. Either way, Rainbow decides it’s best to leave Pinkie to rest and goes off to join Applejack and Rarity in escorting the CMC on their Filly Guide cookie sale. Since when are the CMC Filly Guides anyway? That’s never been established in a previous episode. But… It was in one of the comics! Another reason the comics might be kind of canon. Applejack is little suspicious of Rainbow’s presence even though she promised to be there to help Scootaloo. Rainbow assures her that she’ll be there for her to keep an eye on the whole time. Of course, since she already switched out all their boxes with her joke cookies. So then off they go to sell these cookies to every pony in Ponyville.

They hit up Fluttershy’s house.

I like how the bear is eyeing Rainbow like, “I’m watching you, sucka!”

They hit up Twilight and Spike at the Castle of Friendship.

Spike wants all the cookies! We’re cut from the same cloth me and Spike.

They hit up Cranky Doodle Donkey and Mathilda. They hit up Mr. and Mrs. Cake. They hit up Big Mac. They hit up Cheerilee. They hit up all of Ponyville. All of it!

As the day comes to an end, Rainbow starts to wonder why no pony has come out yet with their now rainbow-colored mouths. It’s still relatively early in the evening. Rainbow decides to go and check on everypony and finds the town practically abandoned with no pony in sight. She heads over to Sugarcube Corner to ask Pinkie if it’s possible that the something may be wrong with the joke cookies, causing everypony to remain indoors. She doesn’t find Pinkie initially, but she does find Mrs. Cake…. Disheveled and crying out for cookies!

Even the Cake Twins! Who gives toddlers cookies anyway?! Wait, they have diapers this time, unlike the last time we’ve seen them. According to my chronology, they should be between three and four years old by now. Do ponies develop at different rates than humans? Do the writers and animators just not care or something?

Clearly, I’m burying the lead here. Rainbow’s harmless joke cookies have turned Pinkie and the Cakes into cookie-hungry zombies! A cookie-hungry zombie is pretty much what I become most nights. It’s not that bad. Anywho, Rainbow runs off and sees many in the town have become rainbow-mouthed cookie-hungry zombies. She runs into Twilight and Spike, but they have also succumbed to the cookie-induced zombification.

She also finds that Fluttershy and her animals as well as Granny Smith have become cookie zombies too. Rainbow then finds Applejack, Rarity, and the CMC and tries successfully to get them away from the oncoming horde of cookie-hungry zombies.

Yeah, that’s some zombie movie logic at work right there.

They take refuge in a barn, which is soon enough surrounded by zombie ponies.

Rainbow confesses to them how she switched the Filly Guide cookies with joke cookies that were supposed to turn their mouths rainbow-colored but somehow turned everypony into a mindless horde of cookie-hungry zombies. Rainbow thinks they should hunker down until the effects eventually wear off. How does she even know that though? As far as she knows, she could have permanently sickened the entire town. Either way, they should be fine as long as none of them eats the cookies. Only one problem though.

They’ve already eaten the cookies!



This always happens in a zombie movie, doesn’t it? Always, one of the survivors hunkering down has already been bitten by a zombie, and then they become one.

The now zombified Applejack lets in the other zombies, and Rainbow is left cowering in the corner as the horde approaches, coming for her delicious cookies. She cries out how it was supposed to be a prank, it was supposed to be funny, but this isn’t funny at all. Pinkie responds that is exactly the point. Rainbow’s confused. Turns out, this was all one big prank that Pinkie planned with everypony once she found out about Rainbow’s planned prank. Everypony thought it was really funny, but not Rainbow. She was really scared and thought she had gotten everypony sick. She doesn’t think they can just go around pranking whoever they want like Twilight said. Or without thinking about how they would make someone feel like Fluttershy said. Or without knowing if they’d enjoy it like Rarity said. Or without knowing if they’d think it was funny like Applejack said. Rainbow realizes the point they’re trying to get across. She needs to take into account more how other ponies feel before she pranks them. That’s a lesson I can stand behind… I guess. I’m not one for pranking. In the end though, Rainbow declares that after this prank, she’s going to have to work even harder to top it. Everypony just stares at her in disbelief. Is Rainbow really that dense?

Turns out this was a joke too, one that’s more well received among the assembled ponies.

This episode was written by one F.M. de Marco, a new writer on the series. He has previously written for Littlest Pet Shop and Dragons: Riders of Berk. Now, I’ve seen quite a bit of Littlest Pet Shop, and despite being a fan of the How to Train Your Dragon films (along with the rest of the Rise of the Brave Tangled [Frozen] Dragon crossover fandom), I have yet to see the Dragons TV series. Interestingly enough, Mr. de Marco is not the first of the newer writers to have originally written for LPS. Perhaps given the recent end of LPS, they’ve decided to move some of its writers onto MLP. Given that I haven’t seen enough episodes of LPS to make out individual writers’ writing styles, I can’t say if anything about this episode lines up with any style Mr. de Marco may have. I will say though that his status as a new writer is probably the reason for some of the things in this episode that are kind of off.

Speaking of Littlest Pet Shop, the end of this episode did bare a similarity to first segment of LPS episode “Littlest Pet Shop of Horrors”. Blythe gets attacked by the now zombified pets who are constipated from bad pet treats and are crying out for “bran” instead of “brains” like it initially seems. Blythe, like Rainbow Dash, is also voiced by Ashleigh Ball, and in this case, her Halloween costume included a puppet of MLP’s Applejack, also voiced by Ashleigh Ball.

The most ironic thing about this though is that F.M. de Marco did not write this episode of Littlest Pet Shop.

Despite it being revealed in a synopsis that this was a prank, this episode does a good job making it seem like a cookie-hungry zombie apocalypse is actually happening. I actually thought for a second Rainbow had managed to actually poison everypony with her joke cookies. Even though the ending was to be expected, it almost seemed unexpected. It’s got that going for it.

They’re kind of liberal with the z-word despite the fact these aren’t your typical undead zombies, just the cookie-hungry variety that I become most nights. I think some among us were hoping for the undead kind. Of course, that might have been a little too much for a children’s show. Though this isn’t the first time the term “zombie” is used on MLP. That actually was in “Bridle Gossip” way back in Season 1.

The plot of this episode does bear a certain similarity to the plot of Season 2’s “The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well”. While in this case though, the Rainbow’s friends coming together to show Rainbow up like this seems a bit more justified. Despite the general consensus among the Brony fandom that “The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well” is MLP’s worst episode, I still do not have a problem with it. Even after rewatching it, I still don’t get what the problem is. Still though, the sense that the fandom might have a similar disdain for this episode given its similarity to “The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well” may have lessened my enjoyment of it.

In the end, I think your mileage may vary with this episode depending on your opinion of pranks. We Bronies are an internet-minded people, YouTube being a big part of that. And one of the biggest genres on YouTube is the the prank video, which end up being heavily promoted due to how much revenue they generate for YouTube. Of course, this has led to a backlash against them by the rest of the YouTube community given how most of these pranks have to be fake and how some of prank channels re-upload their older videos to score more views. If you’re one of the presumably many people who can’t get enough of these pranks, than you’ll probably like this episode. If you can’t stand these prank videos, maybe you won’t. I don’t particularly care about prank videos either way.

As for what I didn’t like, there’s just some bad characterization for all around. I already noted some of these instances, such as Applejack and Pinkie’s lack of concern over how Fluttershy feels about being pranked. (And way back in “Griffon the Brush Off” in Season 1, Pinkie thought Fluttershy was too sensitive to be pranked.) Plus, there’s also when Rainbow still tried to drag Pinkie out of bed to see her prank go down, despite how sick she seems. This could be chalked up to the fact that this episode was written by a new writer for MLP, the aforementioned F.M. de Marco. Perhaps, Mr. de Marco is not as familiar with these characters as he thought he was.

There’s also a bit of concern over the potential for disproportionate retribution. There’s the possibility that the prank Rainbow’s friends pulled on her (making her think she accidentally turned them all into cookie-hungry zombies) was much worse than the prank she tried to pull on all of them (making their mouths rainbow-colored) as well as any of the other pranks she pulled. Now, it’s been a common prank in the past to give people stuff that turns their parts of their mouths a different color or actually tastes bad or whatever. Understandably, you shouldn’t be switching out someone’s foodstuffs for one that contains unknown content that could inadvertently cause serious health problems. Still though, does that really justify making Rainbow Dash think that actually happened as a result of what she thought was a harmless prank? Honestly, I don’t know, but it could potentially be a problem.

Overall, “28 Pranks Later” was kind of underwhelming, but not too underwhelming. It just sits in this gray zone between good and bad that is difficult to discern.

What did ya’ll think of “28 Pranks Later”?

God bless you all. God bless America. And God bless Equestria.