Even if "Luna Eclipsed" has shown up on another My Little Pony DVD (Adventures in the Crystal Empire), I can’t complain. There are so many good things about this episode, and it’s a rare appearance by, admittedly, my favorite pony Luna. Basically, the episode starts with the pony version of Halloween, which is Nightmare Night. Princess Luna decides to take this opportunity to visit Ponyville and befriend her subjects. Since Luna was only recently transformed from Nightmare Moon back into her former self, the ponies have some trouble accepting her and show her fear instead of affection. One thousand years of solitude did nothing to help her people skills either. In the end, Twilight finds a way to get the ponies and Luna to understand each other, and they end up making the holiday even more fun for future generations. A great bonus to this episode is how other main characters get some great lines. For example, there’s Twilight’s, "I’m going to do what I do best, lecture her!" and Spike’s, "Aw, the rainbow wig just kills it for me." I could spend the entire review just dissecting this episode, but I will spare you, and ask you to trust me that it’s one of the best episodes for character development, Luna, humor, and more Luna.
The other episodes included are "Boast Busters," "Stare Master," "Sleepless in Ponyville," "Castle Mane-ia," and "Bats!" If you want to see the origin of "The Great and Powerful Trixie," then "Boast Busters" is the episode where see that, and you also get to see why she became so obsessed with besting Twilight in the first place. In "Stare Master," Fluttershy gets to shine with her famous stare. It’s also an episode with the most adorable and, at the same time, terrifying cockatrice ever. How that’s possible, I don’t know, but it also mirrors Fluttershy’s paradoxical qualities as well. "Castle Mane-ia" is a classic haunted house story that turns out to be not so haunted. Pinkie Pie gets one of her best surprise starring roles ever, in hilarious Pinkie style. "Bats!" is an episode that I’d wager generated enough fan art to bump up several MLP fansites into the next storage tier for their hosting. Vampire fruit bats have taken over Applejack’s orchard, and Fluttershy is charged with making peace with them. It’s either that, or the group of friends has resolved to kick them out. In the process, Fluttershy is turned into a vampire version of herself (with a taste for apples, not blood), and goes on a fruit rampage herself. Hanging upside down, hissing, and swooping past her friends, she’s terrifying, but still sort of cute. Like I said: fan art explosion.
Luna actually features in another episode other than "Luna Eclipsed." In "Sleepless in Ponyville," we see her in a role Celestia, well, could only dream of. She seems to walk through dreams, helping ponies whose troubling fears have become nightmares. She guides Scootaloo into facing her fear of rejection by Rainbow Dash, and in the end, helps her get rid of her nightmares. Did I mention Luna is in this one again?
Overall, this is a great collection of Halloween themed episodes. It would be perfect to play post trick-or-treating. Unfortunately, don’t expect any of the costumes that the ponies on the cover are wearing to show up in the DVD. Rainbow Dash doesn’t dress up as a vampire, Pinkie Pie isn’t ever a kitty, and Rarity never puts on a witch costume. It’s just a marketing scheme to make it seem like there’s something in the DVD that fans haven’t seen before. The DVD also comes with a bonus poster that depicts Luna reading scary stories for Nightmare Night. There are also pumpkin carving stencils of either Nightmare Moon or Trixie (since they are on opposite sides of same sheet of paper, you need to choose), but as a Luna fan, I’ll have to say go with the Trixie stencil. It’s just not a great Nightmare Moon or Luna depiction. And having gotten Luna into this review as many times as possible, I’ll exit now. This is a pretty good collection for any time of year, but especially if your favorite holiday is Halloween.
