History Recap / MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E1MareInTheMoon

* FaintInShock: Spike faints Nightmare Moon makes her grand entrance.

* {{Fainting}}: Spike faints upon seeing Nightmare Moon making her grand entrance.

Twilight Sparkle sits alone by a tree, reading up on the history of Equestria and the tale of Nightmare Moon. Long ago, two sisters ruled the land; the elder raised the sun at dawn while the younger raised the moon at dusk. One day however, the younger sister grew resentful of the fact that the ponies played in the day, yet slept through her wonderful night. She became bitter and one night refused to lower the moon. The elder sister was forced to use the power of the Elements of Harmony to banish her sister to the moon. After some further research, Twilight Sparkle is convinced that soon the Mare in the Moon will return for her revenge "on the longest day of the thousandth year"... which happens to be the upcoming Summer Sun Celebration. She tells her baby dragon assistant, Spike to send a letter to Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria, on the matter and she doesn't like the response:

First, she visits [[CountryMouse Applejack]], hoping to quickly check on the food preparations and be on her way. Instead she's introduced to Applejack's [[LongList huge]] [[TheClan extended family]] and plied with all manner of apple-based foods. Shortly after leaving with a full stomach, she's [[CrashIntoHello swept off her feet]] by [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Rainbow Dash]] and knocked into a puddle of mud. After a number of futile attempts to clean her up, Twilight is left with a fluffed-up mane and Spike and Rainbow are left in tears of laughter. After they regain their composure, Rainbow reveals what she's doing for the festivities: taking care of the weather. She's the fastest Pegasus in Ponyville and she proves it by clearing the sky of clouds in [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Ten. Seconds. FLAT.]]

Next on the list is [[TheFashionista Rarity]] who's in charge of the decorations. Spike is [[PrecociousCrush smitten instantly]] while Rarity is shocked and appalled by Twilight's messy mane. Insisting that she fix it up, she runs Twilight through a number of costumes (and gushes over her dreams of moving to Twilight's hometown of Canterlot) before Twilight drags Spike from the boutique and out to the edge of the woods where [[FriendToAllLivingThings Fluttershy]] is leading a choir of songbirds in rehearsal. Unfortunately, Twilight appears at a bad time and startles both the birds and poor Fluttershy. Despite her best efforts, Twilight can't get [[ShrinkingViolet Fluttershy]] to talk to her... [[CutenessProximity until she sees Spike]]. After Spike literally tells Fluttershy his life story, Twilight brushes her off and drags Spike into the library with her. Hoping to finally get some time to herself, she turns on the light...

** Whilst Twilight is dictating her letter to Princess Celestia and the "camera" is following her, the huge hourglass in the Canterlot library passes in front of a unicorn head statue, causing it to distort to the profile of Nightmare Moon.

Celestia tasks Twilight with supervising the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration in the small town of Ponyville and gives her a secondary task of finding and making some friends. Firmly believing that the fate of the world does not rest on her making friends, Twilight arrives in Ponyville to fulfill her royal duty. Spike asks Twilight to attempt socializing with others, directing her to a pink Earth Pony passing by. When Twilight greets the stranger, the pink pony gasps and runs away. Now certain that she's the [[OnlySaneMan only sane pony]] in the village, Twilight grudgingly does her job.

->'''Nightmare Moon:''' Remember this day, little ponies, for it was your last. From this moment forth, [[PunctuatedForEmphasis the night... will last...]]''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis forever!]]'' MWAHAHAHAHA!

* TemptingFate: Pinkie Pie to Twilight while waiting for Princess Celestia to [[CueTheSun raise the sun]].
-->'''Pinkie Pie:''' This is so exciting! Are you excited? 'Cause I'm excited. I've never been so excited -- well, except for the time that I saw you walking into town and I went '''{{Gasp}}''' but I mean, really, [[LampshadeHanging who could top that]]?

** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] with Pinkie Pie herself, how puts a whole lot of it on a ''cupcake'', eats it whole but is unaffected by the sauce.

* BlazingInfernoHellfireSauce: Due to Pinkie being... [[GenkiGirl well]], ''[[MotorMouth Pinkie]]'', Twilight decides INeedAFreakingDrink and inadvertently pours herself hot sauce by mistake and drinks it. Due to the hotness of the sauce, her cheeks swell up and ''her mane catches on fire'' and runs out of the room in pain!

* BlazingInfernoHellfireSauce: Due to Pinkie being... [[GenkiGirl well]], ''[[MotorMouth Pinkie]]'', Twilight decides INeedAFreakingDrink and inadvertently pours herself hot sauce by mistake, hue to the hotness of the sauce her cheeks swell up and ''her mane catches on fire'' and runs out of the room in pain!

* ImNotHereToMakeFriends: "The fate of Equestria does not rest on me making friends."

* ExpositionCut: How Spike tells his life story.

* LampshadeWearing: Spike, at Pinkie Pie's party.
* LetMeAtHim: Rainbow Dash to Nightmare Moon. She is held back.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: While the crowd is cheering in the city hall at the announcement of the Summer Sun Celebration, you can vaguely hear someone saying, "Yeah, hell yeah!"

* BalloonBelly: Twilight Sparkle gains one after meeting Applejack's family and being persuaded to stay for brunch. "I ate too much pie..."

* CutenessProximity: Fluttershy comes out of her shell after seeing Spike.

* TurnInYourBadge: When Twilight Sparkle reports her findings about the return of Nightmare Moon to Princess Celestia, the response is that she should stop reading those dusty old books... essentially taking her off the case. This is in fact a {{plan}} meant to ensure that Twilight defeats Nightmare Moon.

** There is a lot more incidental music and MickeyMousing -- almost to the point of LullDestruction -- compared to later episodes, which go for more dynamic and specific background tracks. Even "Applebuck Season" three episodes later has much less of both.

Oh look, [[BrickJoke it's that pink pony from earlier.]] [[GenkiGirl She won't stay still and]] [[MotorMouth she won't shut up either.]] She introduces herself as Pinkie Pie, and while she's explaining at a mile a minute that the reason she dashed off was to set up a surprise welcoming party, Twilight unwittingly [[INeedAFreakingDrink pours herself a drink]] of hot sauce, [[ExtremeOmnivore which Pinkie then eats on a cupcake without a second thought.]] Running to her room, Twilight ponders the idea that these new ponies are her friends and worries over whether or not the Mare in the Moon will really return. Before she has time to fret any further, she's beckoned to the town hall to watch the sun rise.

* Spike is shown having difficulty spelling Twilight's bigger words like "precipice" and "imperative". After this episode, he has no spelling problems with Twilight's letters.

* BeQuietNudge: When Twilight tries to take leave from Fluttershy, she uses the pretext that her baby dragon need his sleep. Spike starts retorting "No, I don't--", but Twilight (who is carrying him on her back at the moment) shakes her rump and sends him landing on his tush on the ground.

* CardiovascularLove: On seeing Rarity for the first time, Spike gets a HeartSymbol first as WingdingEyes, and then they start floating from his head and popping like bubbles.

** "The night...will last...''forever!''"

* RealTime: Exactly ten seconds elapse when Rainbow clears all the clouds at warp speed.

* PunctuatedForEmphasis: "What'd I say? Ten. Seconds. Flat."

** Twilight’s reaction toward Celestia’s reply to “stop reading those dusty old books”.

* OhCrap: The entire town's reaction to Nightmare Moon appearing. Twilight's reaction starts earlier since she's the only one who knows it's coming.

* KnightOfCerebus: Things are pretty happy and funny... and then Nightmare Moon shows up...

'''Also known as "Friendship Is Magic, part 1".'''

* RealityIsUnrealistic: At first glance, one might wonder over the bird that looked like a cardinal but was red on top and brown on the bottom; males are red above and below and females are brown above and below. The pyrrhuloxia is pied but is gray below, and the two species can hybridize.