And so begins the next couple of non-arc episodes! As well as the turning point of season 1 as most of the episodes get a major increase in content and jokes!

So what does this episode bring us? Well Bugze almost dying, exposition and more exposition, and the introduction of everyone's favorite filly!

This episode starts...in purgatory.

Wow, not even a paragraph in and the episode's already dead.

*booing from crowd*

Sorry, sorry I couldn't resist!

Anyway, we see Bugze heading towards the light since it feels so nice. However before he gets too close he hears a voice telling him not to go towards the light. Turning around he sees the voice coming from some hazy, midnight colored being with pure white eyes.

In other words, a very poorly hidden Nightmare Moon.

Yeahhhhhh....your all gonna see that I failed spectacularly when it came to keeping the being inside Bugze hidden. I blame the fact that I described every interaction she had with Bugze as dark, female, and the color midnight. Honestly I would have been surprise if no one put two and two together and figure out it was Nightmare Moon just from this episode.

Heck, some of you did figure that out!

Well, failed keeping a major player in the shadows aside we have Bugze chase the midnight being back into the realm of consciousness.

When we do go back to the real world we see a now bandaged Bugze mumbling things in his sleep inside a hut of some kind.

Yeah...I think I need to add a plot-hole here cause he mentions a family member here that isn't his parents or Grandbuggy. And considering the plot has it that his only family member at the Hive was Grandbuggy so yeah....Man I was hoping we wouldn't have anymore plot-holes till later but oh well.

So after a few references in his sleep Bugze awakens back into the real world, his first words shouted are if the girls are okay. After calming down a bit, and seeing just how banged up he is from his fight, Bugze comments on how creepy the tribal mask surrounding the room he's in are.

Deciding he's had enough of the creepy mask he gets up, a little too quickly however as he irritates his wounds. Working off the pain he looks at the mirror again, and is surprised to see a strange symbol on his chest, glowing a eerily midnight blue.

Ah yes, more Naruto inspired content brings us the Eight Sign Seal used to keep the Kyuubi sealed inside Naruto. If you couldn't tell Naruto inspired a lot of the content in this series, at least when it comes to Bugze's situation. I just liked the whole 'powerful being sealed inside' trope and figured that this would be a good chance to use it.

That and I needed to create a reason why we got the Armor from the Ruined Castle hehehehehe....

Anyway before Bugze can think too much on it the symbol fades away. After wondering aloud on how Cadence probably won't like this, the one character whose stuck with Bugze though everything and enjoys whacking him with a big stick when he messes up makes her first appearance, Zecora!

Now if only I was better at writing rhyme's so her dialogue wasn't limited to one comment that had it, but oh well.

So next we have Zecora explaining to Bugze what happened over the past six weeks, the amount of time he's been out of it.

As this is all done via non dialogue, I have a obligation to show you all this video:

This video sums up the wall of text pretty nicely.

With this exposition we get a idea of where we are in canon, which is a few weeks after the parasprite infestation.

After this Zecora leaves so I don't have to write her dialo-I mean to go herb hunting. When she does Bugze decides to see why The Inventory was glowing. When he opens it at first nothing happens, but then suddenly something jumps out of it. What is this something you ask? Why its....Nightshade!

...

Oh if you wanna be technical with the timeline, its a filly version of Nightmare Moon wearing her armor, And what is the first thing this little adorable filly says to the shocked Bugze, why she calls him 'Daddy' of course!

...

Mwahahahahahahaha!

Ahem, anyway the idea to have a filly Nightmare Moon in the story was, like most of my ideas, a spur of the moment plan.

You see around this time I found some fan-art for a fanfiction called Past Sins. Being the curious Brony I was, and always looking for more inspiration, I read it. Well...read a few chapters of it at least, I didn't have the best attention span back then hehehe...

Anyway. needless to say I fell in love with the idea of a filly Nightmare Moon, and the struggles and hardships raising her would be concerning her existence.

So I thought, 'why don't I do that?', and thus the glowing Inventory came to be. Now did the addition of filly Nightmare Moon go the way I wanted to?

Considering I thought the idea would crash and burn my fic the minute I published it, I like to think it did! Course Nightshade is by no means Nyx, the two couldn't be more different if they tried. I took the idea and messed with/probed it/ twisted it to my own little thing.

Course I probably would never have thought of it if it weren't for Past Sins, so big thanks to Pen Stroke!

And thus the episode ends with Bugze giving a big mighty 'WHAT!'

This episode was great! It introduced what would become one of the most popular character of the series (should host a poll for that), gave us some foreshadowing of DFV, and provided another outlet for the Hive Mind to cause mischief in the form of Nightshade...course that's more prominent in season 2 but hey it counts!

Without further ado, lets get the Title Segment going!

Favorite Moment:

Nightshade's introduction

Even though the glowing bag was for one episode it did its job of getting the Hive Minds curiosity going, and it had good build up to Nightshade jumping out of The Inventory, which I bet is one of the most adorable things ever!

Embarrassing Moment:

The first one I liked because if I was sent to Equestria and I could be killed or feel pain, I would So do that and take pictures of there faces. Then I would put those pictures on t-shirts with the caption "WTF...Why is this guy have a shirt with my face on it".

So this makes me look like a masochist...joy...

Plot-Hole Detected:

"Noooooooooo aunt Bugameen I don't like knit-sweaters.

Already explained it in the review. Unless we suddenly give Bugze more family this will remain a plot-hole for all time!

Welp that's it for this review! Reply if you have any questions concerning this chap, for me in general, or to just tell me what you thought of this chapter as well! See ya all tomorrow with the next ep!

The Karma Counter:

Good: 8
Evil: 6

Plot Hole Count: 3

Rating: 8.5/10