Boy that's a long title

Hello everypony, griffon, dragon, yak, mule and all in-between. It is I, Lunaexcelsior; the reviewing subject of the princess of the night, but some of may know me from my Basilisk bash reviews. The reason I didn’t give my serpentine cohort this one is simple; this episode was freaking amazing! It was, by far, my most anticipated episode of this season and it did not disappoint. It hit every note a great Luna episode should hit and everything was executed to a perfectionist point.

So without further ado, let’s begin the review.

The episode opens on a very promising note. We see Luna talking to what seems to be the remains of the astral dream realm. She calls it Tantabus.

Wait, Tantabus?? Don’t you mean ‘Tantibus’ a.k.a Latin for nightmare a.k.a. the name of my, currently in the works, fanfic (subtle self promotion)?! Bucking really, now I have to change that too! You know it wasn’t easy to find that precise word you guys. I had to look up two whole Google translate researches for that. Urgh.

Anyway the magical mist Tantabus seems to be semi sentient as Luna can refer to it (I think Mr. Psycho might want to have a chat with Hasbro). It turns Luna into Nightmare Moon (wellp no point in hiding her. We all knew she was going to appear in this one).

Tantabus then proceeds to recreate Luna’s Nightmare past, but something goes array, as it becomes too powerful and escapes Luna’s grasp. Oopsie daisy!

You know what comes next.

My little pwny, friendship is good, beautiful heart, Pinkie’s awesome, yadda yadda yadda. Once the intro ends we see that nopony has had a goodnight sleep. All of the ponies seem to have had a bad dream involving a misty creature. Except for Spike. Yeah, Spike’s not cool like that yo. Twilight decides to write a letter to Princess Luna, Excelsior Nocturna Magnifico! What that’s her official title from where I come from. It’s not weird!

Anyway, the princess explains to the Mane Six that the misty creature was of her own doing and that they were infected because she dreamed of them. Ha! So that’s how the dreams are connected! *takes out pen and paper and starts writing all of this down* that’s just what I need to continue… Oh right! The review.

The Mane Six offer to help Princess Luna to catch Tantabus, but she refuses the help by saying that ‘it might put them in danger and she doesn’t want to be responsible for any more pain and misery’. Wow, nightmare Moon really messed her up. I mean seriously, hearing Luna talk about her past is really heart wrenching in this episode, but more on that later.

Since only the Mane Six have been infected, Luna confides them all to one room. Twilight asks her about calling Celestia to help her, but she states that Celestia has no powers in the dream world, as I rejoice, because this strengthens my fannon. And see, Celestia isn’t omnipotent. She does have her limits.

Anyway, the Mane Six fall asleep and Luna begins to enter each of their dreams. Ladies and gentleman, prepare your LSD capsules, because we are going on one heck of a trip. Cue the Beetlejuice music!
First up we have Rarity. She dreams of floating clothes surruounding her. Well that’s dissapointing. Seriously, all the clothes are exactly the same.

Couldn’t you have at least had them in different colors or some variations? Anyway, the Tantibus begins to transform each clothing piece into a weird monster of some sorts as they band together (he he I made a funny) and assault Rarity. Also this line:

“Avant-garde? I should have said En-guard”

A for effort, I guess.

Hey, not all zingers are dead ringers. You keep that with you when you go to sleep tonight.

As she fights off the haunted dresses (never thought I would have to type that), Luna beams in to being and gives chase to Tantabus. Rarity offers to help, but Luna pulls a Peter Parker on her, saying she must do this alone. However, all of her efforts were in vain as Tantabus escapes Rarity’s dream. Luna quickly follows suit and arrives into Pinkie Pies dream. And the LSD should be kicking in right about… now!

Sweet Luna is Pinkie Pie’s dream a dozy and a half. Even Luna can barely keep up with her ever changing pace. According to Pinkie she just dreams of any thought she has. They are so rapid that it is absolutely hilarious. Anyway she stops by the Sugar Cube corner for some cake. However all is not well, as Tantabus is quick to follow suit. The mystical fog turns every cake into a horrifying flying monstrosity. *puts on Saw mask*

All your life you have been eating cake, but this time the cake will be eating you, Pinkie.

Of course Luna poofs into being through a cupcake (that LSD is doing wonders now, isn’t it?) and manages to chase away the devilish delicacies. Tantabus runs away again, but Luna is quick to follow suit, but she smack dab first into a crystal sculpture of Spike. Okay, that is hilarious. She exits Pinkie’s dream as we see Pinkie Pie dreaming of all of Ponyville. What could possibly go wrong?

And the rollercoaster of crazy doesn’t just stop there! Oh no no, next up we have our dear Fluttershy who is being groomed by… Angel! Wellp, it’s official. We are on a train going off the tracks right down the middle of Crazy Town! Next stop Blood street *toot toot*!

Well Tantabus isn’t having any of that as he turns Angel into a horrifying nightmarish horror. So, what else is new?

Anyway Luna poofs again and swipes Fluttershy just out of Angel’s reach. She then proceeds to chase Tantabus, but it works just about as well as mixing water and oil.

Well after such a ride, I can’t wait to see what they do with- I am sorry I can’t even finish that sentence. AJ’s dream is bor-freak-ing. Look I respect the gal and I like her a whole lot, but she isn’t the least bit interesting and neither are her dreams. Well Tantabus ruins all of her crops and Luna continues chasing it. Next dream please.

The next dream kick flanks and makes me totally forget about AJ’s snore fest. It has Rainbow Dash kick some changeling abdomens and not taking any of it. Also, my favorite line of the whole episode is said here:

“Luna: I can see the Tantabus has already turned your dreams into a nightmare
RD: What are you talking about?! This is my favorite dream!”

Stay classy RD.

Anyways Tantabus comes in once more and wrecks all of it, by turning her dreams into a field of sing songy prissy little flowers. I don’t know what is funnier: RD’s reaction to it or a show originally intended for little girls taking pot shots at a stereotype like this.

Twilight’s dream is about as unpredictable as AJ’s and about as interesting so I will just skim over it. Twilight reads books; Tantabus makes them a monster, Luna comes in, Tantabus escapes and the end.

All seven wake up back at Twilight’s castle as Luna continues to contemplate how she has failed everyone yet again. After she finds out that Pinkie granted Tantabus access to all ponies of Ponyville, Twilight comes up with an idea to create a shared dream, where Tantabus could be finally stopped once and for all. Luna finally allows the Mane Six to help her as she creates the biggest dream ever! I hope you didn’t use all of that LSD at once because now we are going on another ride! Weee!
T
he shared dream is like the ultimate brony fantasy. We’ve got giant Derpy, unicorn Mac, Lyra and Bon Bon (or agent Sweetiedrops) being conjoined ala CatDog style, flying muffins and so much more. It’s beautiful.

The party cannot continue forever as Tantabus has reached critical mass. It is at this point that we see that Luna can barely hold the dream together, let alone defeat the giant alicorn-esque mass.

It begins to morph everything into nightmares, before Big Mac finally understands he can use his dream to become: Sailor Applecorn! The transformation is just hilarious for me to watch.

Soon enough the whole town is in on it: AJ becomes Wonder Mare (I know she probably has a different name, but I am sticking to mine), Spike becomes Dragonman and rides Derpy (no ships allowed ya hear!), Filthy Rich becomes Mr. Moneybags with his Scrooge McDuck abilities, Scotallo grows Mega Wings, Rainbow evolves into Ultra Rainbow and Twilight becomes the leader of the flying book order.

However, it seems that none of these are powerful enough to defeat Tantabus. It is only then revealed that Luna created Tantabus specifically to torture her just so she never forgets about her sins. Damn! That is some heavy stuff. Seriously, I thought I was hard on the ol’ gal when I made her revisit the destroyed castle, but this… This is just wow! I mean I know that you are your harshest critic, but sweet Celestia, is that some heavy stuff right there. All of this boiled under Luna’s surface until it blew up just like that into this creation of Nightmares. Wow.

Princess Twilight assures Luna that she is a much kinder pony now and that Nightmare Luna is in her past. You know this moral is very mature. It’s obvious that this one is meant for a more mature audience but yeah. They are saying that we must not let our past weigh us down in the present. What has been done has been done, we cannot fix that, but we can fix our present and who we are today is what really counts in life. Wow, this show just keeps amazing me.

After she realizes this, Luna finally puts Tantabus under her control and returns it from whence it came from. We end on a happy note as we see Luna in a transcendent dream realm that ions sure to be reappointed as the new fannon exploration place, but that’s a story for another day.

So that was the second Luna episode and wow did it not disappoint. Despite some very minor flaws, this episode was wonderful. It dwelled deeper into Luna’s character, had some stunning visuals and, for the most part, very creative dreams) and gave us an extremely mature moral continuing its streak from ‘Amending fences’. This has now become my favorite Luna episode (sorry Lunar Eclipsed) and served as a great closure on Luna’s pain and suffering as Nightmare Moon. She will always be a part of Luna, but at least now our dearest princess knows that she has her friends by her side. I am Lunaexcelsior and I will see you in the next Basilisk bash. Praised be the night!