# Luna Eclipsed > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Luna_Eclipsed > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Luna_Eclipsed.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_Eclipsed > Source revision: 1333015328 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) 4th episode of the 2nd season of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic "Luna Eclipsed" My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode Princess Luna makes a dramatic entrance. Episode no. Season 2 Episode 4 Directed by Jayson Thiessen James Wootton Written by M.A. Larson Original air date October 22, 2011 (2011-10-22) Running time 22 minutes Episode chronology ← Previous "Lesson Zero" Next → "Sisterhooves Social" My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic season 2 List of episodes "**Luna Eclipsed**" is the fourth episode of the [second season](/source/My_Little_Pony%3A_Friendship_Is_Magic_season_2) of the [animated television series](/source/Animated_series) *[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic](/source/My_Little_Pony%3A_Friendship_Is_Magic)*. The episode was written by [M.A. Larson](/source/M.A._Larson). It originally aired on [The Hub](/source/Discovery_Family#As_Hub_Network_(2010–2014)) on October 22, 2011. In this episode, [Princess Luna](/source/Princess_Luna) visits [Ponyville](/source/Equestria#Ponyville) during the festival of Nightmare Night, but her outdated mannerisms and the ponies' fear cause problems. ## Plot External videos Luna Eclipsed (full episode) — Official upload of the episode onto YouTube My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Equestria Toyline Cutie mark Elements of Harmony Pony Spin-offs My Little Pony: Equestria Girls (2013–2020)(List of animations) My Little Pony: Pony Life (2020–2021)(List of episodes) Characters Mane Six Twilight Sparkle Rainbow Dash Pinkie Pie Applejack Fluttershy Rarity Supporting Spike Princess Celestia Princess Luna Princess Cadance Shining Armor Discord Starlight Glimmer Trixie Zecora Antagonists Queen Chrysalis Lord Tirek Cozy Glow Minor Derpy Hooves Background Six Cheese Sandwich Quibble Pants The Wonderbolts Aunt Holiday and Auntie Lofty Equestria Girls Sunset Shimmer Seasons & episodes Season 1 (2010–2011) "Friendship Is Magic" "The Ticket Master" "Applebuck Season" "Griffon the Brush Off" "Boast Busters" "Dragonshy" "Look Before You Sleep" "Bridle Gossip" "Swarm of the Century" "Winter Wrap Up" "Call of the Cutie" "Fall Weather Friends" "Suited for Success" "Feeling Pinkie Keen" "Sonic Rainboom" "Stare Master" "The Show Stoppers" "A Dog and Pony Show" "Green Isn't Your Color" "Over a Barrel" "A Bird in the Hoof" "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" "Owl's Well That Ends Well" "Party of One" "The Best Night Ever" Season 2 (2011–2012) "The Return of Harmony" "Lesson Zero" "Luna Eclipsed" "Sisterhooves Social" "The Cutie Pox" "May the Best Pet Win!" "The Mysterious Mare Do Well" "Sweet and Elite" "Secret of My Excess" "Hearth's Warming Eve" "Family Appreciation Day" "Baby Cakes" "The Last Roundup" "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000" "Read It and Weep" "Hearts and Hooves Day" "A Friend in Deed" "Putting Your Hoof Down" "It's About Time" "Dragon Quest" "Hurricane Fluttershy" "Ponyville Confidential" "MMMystery on the Friendship Express" "A Canterlot Wedding" Season 3 (2012–2013) "The Crystal Empire" "Too Many Pinkie Pies" "One Bad Apple" "Magic Duel" "Sleepless in Ponyville" "Wonderbolts Academy" "Apple Family Reunion" "Spike at Your Service" "Keep Calm and Flutter On" "Just for Sidekicks" "Games Ponies Play" "Magical Mystery Cure" Season 4 (2013–2014) "Princess Twilight Sparkle" "Castle Mane-ia" "Daring Don't" "Flight to the Finish" "Power Ponies" "Bats!" "Rarity Takes Manehattan" "Pinkie Apple Pie" "Rainbow Falls" "Three's a Crowd" "Pinkie Pride" "Simple Ways" "Filli Vanilli" "Twilight Time" "It Ain't Easy Being Breezies" "Somepony to Watch Over Me" "Maud Pie" "For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils" "Leap of Faith" "Testing Testing 1, 2, 3" "Trade Ya!" "Inspiration Manifestation" "Equestria Games" "Twilight's Kingdom" Season 5 (2015) "The Cutie Map" "Castle Sweet Castle" "Tanks for the Memories" "Slice of Life" "Amending Fences" "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?" "Made in Manehattan" "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" "The Hooffields and McColts" "The Cutie Re-Mark" Season 6 (2016) "A Hearth's Warming Tail" "The Times They Are a Changeling" Season 7 (2017) "The Perfect Pear" Season 8 (2018) "Grannies Gone Wild" Season 9 (2019) "The Last Crusade" Series finale Media Films & specials My Little Pony: The Movie (2017) My Little Pony: Best Gift Ever (2018) My Little Pony: Rainbow Roadtrip (2019) Music Theme song "This Day Aria" Movie Soundtrack "Rainbow" "Off to See the World" Games My Little Pony: Twilight Sparkle, Teacher for a Day Gameloft video game Collectible card game Other media Home video releases IDW comics Issues My Little Pony/Transformers Brony fandom Fan works (list) 15.ai Voiceverse NFT plagiarism scandal A Brony Tale Bronies (documentary) Derpibooru Equestria Daily Fimfiction Fallout: Equestria Friendship Is Witchcraft Legends of Equestria Love & Ponystep Ponysona PONY.MOV Them's Fightin' Herds Fandom people 15 hotdiggedydemon Jenny Nicholson Odyssey Eurobeat Sethisto The Living Tombstone Vylet Pony Fan culture Analysis Brony music Bronyspeak Charity Criticism Fan art Clop Ponysona Fan fiction Military bronies /mlp/ Online communities My Little Pony conventions BABSCon BronyCAN BronyCon Czequestria Everfree Northwest GalaCon Ponyville Ciderfest RuBronyCon TrotCon UK PonyCon Vanhoover Pony Expo v t e [Twilight Sparkle](/source/Twilight_Sparkle), dressed up as the legendary magician [Star Swirl the Bearded](/source/List_of_My_Little_Pony%3A_Friendship_Is_Magic_characters#Pillars_of_Old_Equestria), and [Spike](/source/Spike_(My_Little_Pony)) join Ponyville's Nightmare Night festival and encounter [trick-or-treaters](/source/Trick-or-treat). When they arrive at the festival, [Pinkie Pie](/source/Pinkie_Pie) appears in a chicken costume and leads a group of young ponies, including Pipsqueak, a young colt who recently moved to Ponyville from Trottingham, to various activities throughout the town. Mayor Mare announces the commencement of the festival and invites the foals to follow her and [Zecora](/source/Zecora) to a statue of [Nightmare Moon](/source/Princess_Luna) for a storytelling session, where Zecora explains the tradition of wearing disguises and offering candy to prevent Nightmare Moon from finding and eating the ponies. A flying chariot carrying a hooded figure appears dramatically in the sky with gathering clouds and wind, scaring away everyone except Twilight. The chariot reveals [Princess Luna](/source/Princess_Luna), who announces her desire to transform the "dreadful" Nightmare Night into a celebration of admiration for her, but Pinkie misinterprets this as a threat to feast on everyone and flees with the foals. Recognizing that Luna is having difficulty adjusting after her thousand-year exile, Twilight approaches Luna and suggests that her loud royal voice (the "Royal Canterlot Voice") may be causing miscommunication with the frightened ponies. Twilight brings Luna to [Fluttershy](/source/Fluttershy)'s cottage to learn softer speech patterns, but when Pinkie and the foals witness this encounter, they assume Luna is about to eat Fluttershy and run away in terror. Following [Applejack](/source/Applejack_(My_Little_Pony%3A_Friendship_Is_Magic))'s advice about playing games and having fun, Luna participates in carnival activities and begins to enjoy herself while asking ponies to call her "Luna" instead of "Princess Luna". She helps Pipsqueak at the [apple-bobbing](/source/Bobbing_for_apples) station, but Pinkie again spreads rumors that she is eating him. The frightened reactions of the townspeople cause Luna to lose her temper and loudly decree that Nightmare Night is canceled forever. Twilight discovers that Pinkie actually enjoys being scared because it is fun, so she devises a plan where Luna disguises herself as Nightmare Moon to frighten the children. Luna succeeds in this, and as she begins to doubt the validity of Twilight's plan, Pipsqueak asks her if she can return next year to scare them again; the foals actually enjoy the frightening aspect of the celebration. Delighted, Luna reinstates Nightmare Night and joins the townspeople in various games and practical jokes throughout the rest of the evening. ## Reception Sherilyn Connelly, the author of *Ponyville Confidential*, gave the episode a "B" rating.[1] In her review of the episode in *[SF Weekly](/source/SF_Weekly)*, Connelly wrote that the episode's lesson was "similar to the one from [Zecora](/source/Zecora)'s first episode ["[Bridle Gossip](/source/Bridle_Gossip)"]—don't judge a book by its cover, if somepony seems scary, be friendly to them anyway, and you might be surprised." She noted that while Zecora proved to be not scary at all, "the key to Luna becoming accepted was for her to own her scariness," calling it "a darned fine message."[2] In a critical analysis of the episode, author Jen A. Blue praised director [Jayson Thiessen](/source/Jayson_Thiessen)'s animation techniques, particularly his skill with crowd scenes that create "the impression of a bustling, lively evening" through strategic use of multiple planes of motion and active background characters. Blue analyzed Luna's character as representing "every kid who's ever started a new school" and "every newly minted fan who's ever been derisively called a 'newbie,'" and argued that her struggles stem from being "lost in time" after missing a thousand years of social evolution during her exile. She interpreted the episode's approach to [conflict resolution](/source/Conflict_resolution) as particularly effective, writing that unlike many fish-out-of-water comedies, it "doesn't put all the burden of change on one side" and instead acknowledges that "most conflict between people requires some change on both sides." Blue also examined Twilight's role as having evolved from newcomer to "forum diplomat," suggesting the episode demonstrates how "true transformation" is "a process, bit by bit, tiny incremental changes" rather than an instantaneous cure-all.[3] Brendan Kachel of *flayrah* wrote that the episode was one of his favorites, as well as a favorite of the [brony fandom](/source/Brony_fandom). He praised Luna's character development from "evil [supervillain](/source/Supervillain) in the [series opener](/source/Friendship_Is_Magic_(My_Little_Pony%3A_Friendship_Is_Magic)) to extroverted but socially awkward [geek](/source/Geek)" and noted that her transformation into Nightmare Moon made sense because "she was always a socially awkward geek who just wanted to make friends, but took a bad turn when she wasn't able to."[4] *Anime Superhero News* called "Luna Eclipsed" "the best episode of season two yet," praising its character depth, "genuine emotion, high attention to both the big picture as well as the little details, and a great sense of humor including well done running gags." Despite noting a personal disinterest in holiday-themed episodes, the reviewer wrote that the episode was "amazing" and recommended it to anyone with interest in the series.[5] A rerview from *Republibot* described the episode's plot as "a bit of a mess," suggesting the writers "started with 'sometimes it's fun to be scared,' and then tried to craft a friendship lesson around that." However, the reviewer noted that since "MLP isn't a plot-driven show," the episode was still enjoyable, particularly praising Luna's return with her "ethereal hair" and "voice immodulation" as well as the impressive amount of artwork and animation work required for the Halloween-themed setting.[6] Raymond Gallant of *Freakin' Awesome Network* gave the episode a rating of 6.5 out of 10 and called it "a major mixed bag," praising Luna's characterization as "adorable" and [Tabitha St. Germain](/source/Tabitha_St._Germain)'s voice work while criticizing the absence of [Rarity](/source/Rarity_(My_Little_Pony)), the pacing, and the new character Pipsqueak. Despite this, Gallant wrote that it was "a solid episode overall" that successfully established Luna's character.[7] ## Home media release The episode was part of the Season 2 [DVD](/source/DVD) set, released by [Shout Factory](/source/Shout!_Factory) on May 14, 2013.[8] ## See also - [List of *My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic* episodes](/source/List_of_My_Little_Pony%3A_Friendship_Is_Magic_episodes) ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** [Connelly (2017)](#CITEREFConnelly2017), p. 78 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Connelly, Sherilyn (2012-05-23). ["My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Season 2, Episodes 3 & 4"](https://web.archive.org/web/20120602180025/http://blogs.sfweekly.com/exhibitionist/2012/05/my_little_pony_recap_season_2_episodes_03_04.php). *[SF Weekly](/source/SF_Weekly)*. Archived from [the original](http://blogs.sfweekly.com/exhibitionist/2012/05/my_little_pony_recap_season_2_episodes_03_04.php) on 2012-06-02. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-Blue-S2_3-0)** Blue, Jen A. (2014-10-25). "Hello everypony! Did I miss anything? (Luna Eclipsed)". *My Little Po-Mo: Unauthorized Critical Essays on My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Season Two*. pp. 40–45. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Kachel, Brendan (2013-07-20). ["Review: 'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - Adventures in the Crystal Empire' DVD (with bonus Season 1 DVD review)"](https://www.flayrah.com/5167/review-my-little-pony-friendship-magic-adventures-crystal-empire-dvd-bonus-season-1-dvd-review). *flayrah*. Retrieved 2025-06-19. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** SammyT (2011-10-23). ["My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic – "Luna Eclipsed" Recap"](https://animesuperhero.com/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-luna-eclipsed-recap/). *Anime Superhero News*. Retrieved 2025-06-12. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** Church (2011-10-23). ["EPISODE REVIEW: Friendship is Magic: Luna Eclipsed"](https://web.archive.org/web/20111030045054/http://www.republibot.com/content/episode-review-friendship-magic-luna-eclipsed). *Republibot*. Archived from [the original](http://www.republibot.com/content/episode-review-friendship-magic-luna-eclipsed) on 2011-10-30. Retrieved 2025-06-12. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** Gallant, Raymond (2011-10-25). ["My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Season 2, Episode 4 Review"](https://web.archive.org/web/20140309102244/http://www.freakinawesomenetwork.net/2011/10/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-season-2-episode-4-review/). *Freakin Awesome Network*. Archived from [the original](http://www.freakinawesomenetwork.net/2011/10/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-season-2-episode-4-review/) on 2014-03-09. Retrieved 2025-06-12. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** ["My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic: Season 2"](https://www.amazon.com/My-Little-Pony-Friendship-Magic/dp/B00C0YUY4Q/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top). *Amazon*. February 27, 2013. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20210404071625/https://www.amazon.com/My-Little-Pony-Friendship-Magic/dp/B00C0YUY4Q/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top) from the original on April 4, 2021. Retrieved March 25, 2013. ### Bibliography - Connelly, Sherilyn (2017-04-01). [*Ponyville Confidential: The History and Culture of My Little Pony, 1981-2016*](https://www.google.com/books/edition/Ponyville_Confidential/E3VPDgAAQBAJ). McFarland. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-1-4766-6209-1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-4766-6209-1). ## External links - ["Luna Eclipsed"](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2071864/) at [IMDb](/source/IMDb_(identifier)) v t e My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episodes Seasons 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Season 2 "The Return of Harmony" "Lesson Zero" "Luna Eclipsed" "Sisterhooves Social" "The Cutie Pox" "May the Best Pet Win!" "The Mysterious Mare Do Well" "Sweet and Elite" "Secret of My Excess" "Hearth's Warming Eve" "Family Appreciation Day" "Baby Cakes" "The Last Roundup" "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000" "Read It and Weep" "Hearts and Hooves Day" "A Friend in Deed" "Putting Your Hoof Down" "It's About Time" "Dragon Quest" "Hurricane Fluttershy" "Ponyville Confidential" "MMMystery on the Friendship Express" "A Canterlot Wedding" --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Luna Eclipsed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_Eclipsed) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_Eclipsed?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.