Read It and Weep

Read It and Weep is the sixteenth episode of the second season of Legends of the Multiverse: Friendship is Universe and the forty-second episode overall. While Sally Acorn is stuck in the hospital with an injured tail, she discovers the joy of reading but hides it from her friends due to her former penchant of mocking it as an "egghead" pursuit.

Development
The episode was storyboarded by Raven M. Molisee and Dave Wiebe. Molisee stated that the working title for the episode was "Reading Rainbow", which is the name of the classic PBS children's educational television series.

Writer Cindy Morrow said that the episode had other suggested working titles besides "Reading Rainbow", such as "A Dash of Fiction", "Speed Reader", "A Need for Read", "Book Before You Leap", and "Every Trick in the Book". She also referred to the episode as "Read'em and Weep".

This episode was nominated for a 2012 Leo Award for "Best Overall Sound in an Animation Program or Series".

The scene when Sallyadmits her love for Zak Storm to Kairi reappears in Deep Tissue Memories.

A "Sally Acorn Crash" landing
The episode begins with Nene Amano and Rapunzel watching something zip about in the sky. Kairi Sparkle joins them and asks what they're looking at. Rapunzel tells her that they're watching Sally Acorn, who's performing a series of aerial stunts. Nene and Rapunzel remark how dazzling Sally is, and the three watch her in admiration. However, something appears to go wrong, and the animals watch in horror as Sal plummets to the ground.

Sally regains consciousness in a hospital bed with her friends standing around her. She finds that her right wing is bandaged and groans. Doctor Nefario tells Kairi that Sally is going to be fine, but that she will need to be in the hospital for a few days, to which Sal voices her frustration. Her friends try to cheer her up, but Dash can only sulk under the bed sheets.

Kairi notices a nurse walking by with a cart of books and brings one, Zak Storm and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone, over to Sal. Sally immediately and rudely tosses the book away, saying that reading is "for eggheads" and "uncool". Her friends chuckle at her view of reading, saying that everyone enjoys reading from time to time. The nurse walks in and tells the animals that they'll have to come back tomorrow. Just before leaving, Kairi tells Sally that she'd like Zak Storm and the two of them are a lot alike.

I'm an egghead!
Following a shot of a clock on the wall showing that it's one o'clock, Sally makes several attempts to pass the time—bouncing a ball off the wall, having her lunch (getting a glass briefly stuck on her muzzle), turning her bedside lamp on and off, and telling jokes to her silent and immobile roommate. A bored-looking Sally glances up to the clock and groans loudly as it turns to one minute past one.

Sally looks to the book on her nightstand. She refuses to pick it up at first, but after a couple more reluctant peeks, she sighs in surrender and picks it up to start reading. As she reads, Dash finds herself instantly identifying with the main character, who also has an injured tail.

Sally continues reading the book aloud, and the scene fades to the events told within, where Zak Storm, a brown-coated, grey-fured Flying squirrel with the same mane style as Sally herself, makes her way through a tropical jungle and finds herself surrounded by a tiger, a black panther, a lynx, a cheetah, and a white house cat. Zak flees from the wildcats and uses a vine to swing across a chasm. Sally's narration returns, and she reads that Zak Storm finds herself in front of the ancient temple that she'd been seeking.

The scene cuts back to Sally, who comes to grips with the fact that she loves the book (and reading) and that she is now an egghead.

Hiding the truth
Following another passage of the book, in which Zak Storm braves the ancient temple's numerous traps and pitfalls, a knock at the door interrupts Sally. She quickly hides the book under the covers as Kairi and Spectra Vondergeist enter the room. They come to help Sally with her boredom with a Battleship-style game, which Sal purposely loses and quickly puts away. Before the two can question Sal's odd behavior, she chases them out with the pretense of trying to sleep. When they leave, Dash retrieves the book and continues reading.

Zak Storm makes her way past more obstacles and comes to the Sapphire Stone. After briefly surveying the area around it, she picks it up and tucks it under her hat. This sets off a trap that causes the chamber to start collapsing and filling with lava. Zak Storm jumps from the collapsing pillars and escapes the chamber through a skylight, but a gust of air from the chamber blasts her clear into the jungle, where she falls right at the feet of a strange dog-like creature. The creature cheerfully says "hello, Sally Acorn" with Rapunzel's voice, and the story shifts back to Sally's hospital room.

Rapunzel, Sheriff Mulan, and Nene enter the room and inquire about Sal's well being. Nurse Joy and Nurse Leslie then enters with Sal's dinner, which Sal eats messily, and her friends bid an awkward goodbye and leave the room in disgust. Sally spits out the food and picks up the book again.

The dog-like creature named Golden Bones captures Daring Do and ties her to a stone table in another booby-trapped room, then sets off the traps and leaves. Spiked walls start closing in, spiders crawl over the spikes, cobras emerge from the mouth of an ornament on the wall, and quicksand starts filling the room. The story is once again interrupted, this time by Doctor Nefario—who informs her that she's to be discharged from the hospital, and the nurses hastily wheel her out the front door before she can finish the book.

Getting the book back
Sally Acorn despairs that she'll never find out what happens to Zak Storm. She remembers that Kairi has a copy of the book, but after having called her an egghead, she despairs even more. Sally attempts to admit herself into the hospital again by faking an injury. Doctor Nefario doesn't fall for the ruse, however, so Sally sneaks into the hospital at night.

Sally returns to the room she was staying in and sees a new patient occupying the bed. Underneath the bed, she finds the book. She continues reading immediately, but she ends up waking the patient and alerting the hospital staff. As Sally Acorn makes her getaway, her tail cramps up mid-flight and she crashes, causing her to lose the book. Before she can recover it, the hospital staff chase her out of the hospital and through Multiville.

The noisy pursuit wakes Sally Acorn's friends from their sleep, and all parties meet in front of the Destiny Library. When asked what's going on, Sal admits to being an egghead and explains that she liked the book Kairi gave her, and she tried stealing it from the hospital so she could finish reading it. Understanding of her plight, Sal's friends tell her she didn't need to make a ruckus—or, as Rapunzel puts it, a fracas—over a book.

Kairi lets Sally borrow her copy of the book, and Sally apologizes for everything that's happened. Kairi explains that reading is something everyone can enjoy if they give it a try, and Sally learns not to knock something until she's tried it.

Epilogue
The scene shifts back to the Zak Storm story. Overcome by the quicksand, Zak Storm flings her hat off of her paw; it bounces off the walls and ceiling before hitting the trap lever to its original position. The walls and the quicksand recede, and a door opens leading outside. The scene cuts to Golden Bone petting the white house-cat and gloating over his victory. Suddenly, Zak Storm swings down from a vine and snatches the Sapphire Statue right out of his hand. As Golden Bone weeps over his defeat, Zak Storm scratches off.

Sally Acorn finishes reading the book in her bedroom and delightedly picks up another book, Zak Storm and the Griffon's Goblet.

Quotes

 * Kairi Sparkle: Hey, Nene. Hey, Rapunzel. What are you looking at?
 * Rapunzel: Sally! Isn't she the most daring devil? I mean, devilish darer? I mean—
 * Nene Amano: She's dazzling!
 * Rapunzel: Ooh, yeah, that's a good word. She's dazzling!


 * Sheriff Mulan: Is she gonna be okay?
 * Spectra Vondergeist: Oh, I'm so worried!
 * Rapunzel: Is her face gonna stay that way?


 * Sally Acorn: You guys have gotta get me out of here! I'm gonna climb the walls!
 * Rapunzel: Ooh, just like a spider! [to Doctor Nefario] Did the crash somehow give her super-duper spider powers?


 * Sally Acorn: I so don't read. I'm a world-class athlete. Reading's for eggheads like you, Kairi. Heh, no offense, but I am not reading. It's undeniably, unquestionably, uncool.


 * Sally Acorn: I hate to admit it to myself, and would really hate to admit it to my friends, but... I love this story! I, I... I love reading! I'm an egghead.


 * Zak Storm: You won't get away with this, Golden Bones!
 * Golden Bones: But I already have.


 * Doctor Nefario: [chuckles] I think I know what the trouble is. A severe case of lazy-itis.


 * Patient #1: Someone's trying to steal my slippers!
 * Sally Acorn: I'm not trying to steal your slippers, I'm trying to steal this book!


 * Polar: [barking]
 * Night Watch: Hey, get back to the hospital!


 * Kairi Sparkle: Wow! I knew the book was good, but I didn't know it could drive a animal to petty theft!
 * Sally Acorn: Good? Try awesomely amazing. That book is undeniably, unquestionably, un-put-down-able!


 * Sheriff Mulan: There's no reason to go around causin' a ruckus—
 * Rapunzel: Fracas!
 * Sheriff Mulan: ...causin' a fracas just because you like to read.


 * Kairi Sparkle: Sally, just because you're athletic doesn't mean you aren't smart!
 * Olaf: Yeah, just look at me!
 * Navi: Absolutely


 * Zak Storm: Another day, another dungeon!