For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils · 3:26am Apr 1st, 2022
Princess Luna gets a reputation for helping children fight their nightmares. But this is not entirely accurate.
In Sleepless in Ponyville, she indeed saves Scootaloo from the worst of her terrors, but her role is actually to point out the educational value of them - to guide Scootaloo towards the sorts of changes that she would need to make in real life in order to conquer them.
In "For Whom The Sweetie Belle Toils," Luna's role is much darker. She is no mere dream savior.
For those who don't remember, the story starts with Rarity planning a big wardrobe for Sapphire Shores and her dance troupe, the crown jewel of which is the headdress that Sapphire Shores herself is to wear. It is held together with a single strategic stitch.
Meanwhile, the crusaders are performing in a play written and directed by Sweetie Belle. It's supposed to be her moment to shine, but the costumes that Rarity designed for Sweetie Belle's performance end up stealing her spotlight.
By the end of the evening, Sweetie Belle is completely infuriated. She says "it's my fifth birthday party all over again," and spends the entire night in her room, screaming and punching her pillow. She's so angry that it keeps her up at night...until she finally snaps, and spitefully undoes the stratrgic stitch on Sapphire Shore's headdress, sabotaging Rarity's design.
It is only this act of spite and hatred that grants Sweetie Belle the peace she needs to fall asleep.
When she finally gets to dreaming, Princess Luna intervenes, not to conquer nightmares, but to intensify them. To sharpen their focus.
Throughout the second act of the episode, Princess Luna leads Sweetie Belle down rabbit hole after rabbit hole, playing the role of Christmas Ghosts:. Past Present and Future.
First, Sweetie Belle sees her fifth birthday party, and relives the trauma of coming downstairs to find that Rarity had started the party without her, seemingly stealing all of the attention for herself. But Princess Luna shows her what really happened - that Sweetie Belle had taken so long trying to make herself look fabulous, that the other kids were ready to leave. Rarity intervened, not to steal the party but to save it.
Next, we see what's going on in the present day: Rarity having anxiety over her designs, showing weaknesses, frailties, and insecurities that Sweetie doesn't usually gets to see. For the first time ever, Sweetie Belle sees that Rarity is not perfect after all.
Finally we see the future. Sapphire Shores' headdress falling apart, Rarity's career in ruins. She becomes a shut-in, has a complete mental breakdown, lives in squalor. When Fluttershy knocks on her door and asks for Rarity to make her a dress, Rarity replied, "leave me alone, you know I don't do that anymore!"
It's a horrific escalation that has Sweetie Belle screaming by the end.
Are these visions the acts of somepony who fights kids' nightmares? No. Princess Luna, if anything, intensifies Sweetie Belle's dream terrors. She gives them focus - a lesson. Luna gives Sweetie Belle a final chance at redeeming herself before her actions destroy her sister, and herself.
It is this clarity that spurns Sweetie Belle forward in the final act of the story.
What does this say about Princess Luna? We know that the love of children is a driving force in her life. When she and Princess Celestia switched places three seasons later in "Royal Problems," the thing that horrifies her most is having let down the children who'd been counting on her for their photo-op.
We know from this same episode that Princess Luna dedicates time each night to wrestling with her personal demons. We know from "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?" that she still has Nightmare Moon baggage - that she blames herself for everything.
Yet still she exacerbates Sweetie Belle's nightmares.
Why? Because she "knows what it's like to have a sister that shines more brightly than she."
Princess Luna is not a dream guardian, but rather, a dream guide. She is hardest on Sweetie Belle because:
A. Sweetie had it coming.
B. The stakes are higher than Sweetie Belle can possibly imagine.
C. Luna needs to give Sweetie Belle the tough love she herself never received.
In every episode, every scene, every frame, Princess Luna radiates a profound love and compassion for children. It is for this reason that each night, Luna dives into the very darkness that plagued her in her own youth - swimming into primordial waters, diving again and again into the same sort of trauma and madness that once had drowned her.
Discuss
-Sprocket
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Luna is as much a teacher as her sister. She just has different teaching methods depending on the nature of the student and the lesson.
Is this supposed to be a Heart Full of Pony entry?
"and insecurities that Sweetie doesn't usually gets to see"
"and insecurities that Sweetie doesn't usually get to see"?
In any case, though, thank you, again! Facets of this that I'd either forgotten or, more likely I think, not noticed in the first place, you've brought to a nice shine here. :)