Look Before You Sleep

Look Before You Sleep is the eighth episode of the first season of Legends of the Multiverse: Friendship is Magic. In this episode, Sheriff Mulan and Nene Amano are forced to stay at the library where Kairi Sparkle resides for the night due to a giant thunderstorm. Kairi takes this opportunity to drag them into having a slumber party. The title of the episode is a play on the saying look before you leap, meaning acting only after careful planning.

Development
According to episode writer Charlotte Fullerton, this episode was originally titled Opposites Attack.

Caught in the rain
The episode opens in a field outside the Destiny Library; several Builder Toad and Resetti are seen moving clouds into place to create a downpour. In preparation for this, trees are being pruned to avoid damaging the town. Nene Amano helps out, but her contribution to the cleanup effort involves making topiary out of the loose branches. This puts her at odds with Sheriff Mulan, who insists on taking the branches down. When Nene voices her disapproval of Mulan making a mess, rain starts to fall, much to Nene's further displeasure.

Mulan suggests that Nene use a bench to shield herself from the rain, but Nene refuses out of an unwillingness to get her hands muddy. As the two argue even more over their situation, the rain and wind pick up speed. Kairi Sparkle, noticing the two caught in the storm, offers them shelter in the library until the storm passes.

Slumber 101
"'Slumber 101: All You Ever Wanted to Know About Slumber Parties But Were Afraid to Ask'."

- Nene reading Kairi's book

With Olaf away with Navi in Canterlot on royal business, Kairi is alone for the evening, and sees this as an opportunity to have her very first slumber party. Nene and Mulan are far from eager to spend the entire evening in each other's company, but find themselves unable to leave due to the worsening storm. After a brief argument about mud masks, they agree to try and get along so they don't ruin Kairi's first sleepover.

Kairi is oblivious to Mulan and Nene's silent bickering, checking off each game in her book as they're played. However, for each game played, the two grow more and more frustrated with each other.

During ghost stories, Nene and Mulan suggest stories that allude to why they don't like each other before Kairi tells the legend of The Headless Animal, succeeding in scaring both of her friends. Mulan sickens Nene by burping when they make s'mores. And in a game of Truth or Dare, Mulan and Nene only dare each other to do humiliating things, such as Mulan daring Nene to get her mane wet in the rain and Nene daring Mulan to wear a gaudy, ridiculous outfit.

Kairi, now sensing conflict, tries to move things along. Unfortunately, the conflict comes to a head during the next game: a pillow fight, which in no time turns into an all-out pillow war between Nene and Mulan. Caught in the middle and bombarded with pillows, Kairi suggests that they call it a night and go to bed.

Bickering in the bedroom
Mulan and Nene's petty arguing continues even when the animals try to go to bed. Exasperated by their constant back and forth, Kairi at last decides to intervene and voices how upset she is that her friends are fighting too much to have any fun, thereby ruining her slumber party. Just as Kairi asks if anything else could possibly go wrong, a nearby tree is hit by lightning and begins to topple towards a neighboring house.

Mulan, not heeding a warning from Nene, lassos the falling tree and instead of stabilizing it, sends it crashing through Kairi's bedroom window. Nene focuses on cleaning up the mess of books and Mulan tries to push the tree back out of the window while Kairi desperately searches through her slumber party book for a section on dealing with fallen trees in the middle of the bedroom.

When Mulan fails at moving the tree out on her own, she eventually apologizes to Nene for criticizing her attention to detail and convinces her to focus on helping with the bigger task instead. She gets Nene to not worry so much about getting her hands dirty. Nene uses her rabbit magic to turn the treetop into tiny bush sculptures, clearing the house at the cost of getting dirt all over herself. Applejack, at Rarity's insistence, proceeds to gently toss the broken tree trunk out of the window.

Getting along
With the giant storm, and their differences, finally settled, Mulan, Nene, and Kairi are finally able to have fun, rounding out the evening with a game of 20 Questions. Applejack and Rarity exchange apologies, and in the end, Twilight officially declares the slumber party a success, to her friends' delight.

In a letter to Princess Palutena, Kairi writes that it's possible to get along with someone very different from you if you embrace each other's differences. She proposes another slumber party the following night, and her proposal is met by two pillows thrown in her face. The episode closes as the sky clears up, revealing a bright sunny day.

Quotes

 * Nene Amano: You know, there's messy, and then there's just plain rude.
 * Sheriff Mulan: You know, there's fussy, and there's just plain gettin' on my nerves.


 * Nene Amano: Then you place one marshmallow on the top of the chocolate and be sure it's centered -- that's critical -- and then carefully put another perfectly square graham cracker on the top. And done. Ta-da! [laugh]
 * Kairi Sparkle: Ooo!
 * Sheriff Mulan: Nah, ya just eat 'em. [munch] Mmm-mmm! [belch]


 * Sheriff Mulan: I'd like to tell ya'll the terrifying tale of the prissy ghost, who drove everybody crazy with her unnecessary neatness! OooooOOwwoOOO! I'm sure ya'll are familiar with that one?
 * Nene Amano: Never heard of it. But I have a much better one... It's the horrifying story of the messy inconsiderate ghost, who irritated everyone within a hundred miles! OoooooOOOwwwwOOOoo...


 * Nene Amano: (after getting hit in the face with a pillow) IT! IS! ON!


 * Sheriff Mulan: Yeah, that's not gonna happen. Geronimo!
 * Nene Amano: You did that on purpose.
 * Sheriff Mulan: Um, yeah.
 * Nene Amano: Get up so I can fix it again.
 * Sheriff Mulan: Can't hear ya, I'm asleep. [fake snore]


 * Sheriff Mulan: I'm mighty sorry, Kairi.
 * Kairi Sparkle: It's... Well, it's not okay. There's a giant tree branch in the middle of my bedroom, and the book doesn't say anything about having a giant tree branch at your slumber party. Or at least I haven't found that entry yet. Ooh... ah!


 * Kairi Sparkle: Well, they do have a section about backyard slumber parties. Is that what we're doing right now? Does this count as camping?


 * Kairi Sparkle: Oh, pretty! Where did these come from? They're not in the book either.


 * Sheriff Mulan: Is it... a six-legged spider with a purple polka-dotted mane and shootin' stars comin' out of his eyes?
 * Nene Amano: Who flies through the air all over the world to hide magic, sparkly eggs?
 * Kairi Sparkle: That's it!
 * Sheriff Mulan and Nene Amano: It is?
 * Kairi Sparkle: No.