Sunny and her friends are invited to the Manesquerade Ball in Zephyr Heights. Zipp plans to do some research on alicorns during the event, and Misty sneaks out of Opaline's castle in order to attend and keep an eye on the group.
Tropes:
- Call-Back:
- Misty wears the same peacock-styled half-mask for the ball that she wore in the Tell Your Tale episode "Nightmare Night Party".
- Alphabittle brags about his skills at Just Prance, the dancing game he challenged Sunny with in A New Generation.
- Confess to a Lesser Crime: Zipp confronts Misty about hiding things from them, so she confesses to not having a cutie mark to throw her off the bigger secret.
- The Door Slams You: While following Zipp into the royal library, Misty ends up briefly getting stuck in the middle of the closing double doors.
- Empty Nest: Queen Haven once again bemoans how empty the castle seems without Pipp and Zipp.
- Failed a Spot Check: Opaline fails to notice that Misty is now wearing a bracelet with the Mane Five's cutie marks on it (given to her by Izzy) when she returns to the castle, and thus doesn't suspect Misty has been out for most of the day.
- Foreshadowing: Alphabittle briefly focuses on Misty when he sees her dancing with the Mane Five, almost as if he recognizes her, but brushes it off when another pony blocks his view.
- The Glomp: Izzy tackle-hugs Misty when she shows up at the Brighthouse.
- Hidden Depths: Rocky Riff proves himself to be no slouch as a DJ during the ball.
- Internal Reveal: Misty confesses to Zipp that she doesn't have a cutie mark.
- Masquerade Ball: The annual Zephyr Heights Manesquerade Ball, with everyone wearing fancy domino masks.
- Not Me This Time: When Zipp finds some pages ripped out of the Alicorn book, she glances at Sparky, who was just chewing on the book a second ago. But he just shrugs and shakes his head innocently. The final scene reveals Misty as the culprit.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: While Misty is out partying with her secret friends, Opaline successfully retrieves the Dragon Stone after accidentally dropping it in "Sunny Side Up", following an arduous climb up the mountain. The viewers don't see the mission itself since the episode focuses on the Masquerade Ball.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Queen Haven thinks her identity is completely hidden while wearing a domino mask to the Ball, even though she's still wearing all her regalia. However, pretty much everyone still recognizes her and just plays along with her attempts to go incognito.
- Secret Test of Character: Misty believes Opaline is giving her this when she tells her to stay in the castle while she recovers the Dragon Stone, and decides to spy on the Mane Five, thinking Opaline will approve. When Opaline returns to the castle at the end of the episode, she commends Misty for seemingly obeying her order and staying put.
- Sure, Let's Go with That:
- During the trip to Zephyr Heights, Izzy notices Misty acting strangely and thinks she's nervous. Misty pretends that this is the big secret she's been hiding.
- Absolutely nopony is fooled by Queen Haven's mask, but they pretend to be anyway, so as not to upset her.
- Unusual Euphemism:
- Izzy declares "Hayfever-happyberries!" when she sees the majesty of the Manesquerade Ball.
- While gloating over her detective instincts being right, Zipp says "Boom-Zippity!"
