Between Dark and Dawn

Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Wu and Garmadon off on their vacation

**Between Dark and Dawn** is the thirteenth episode of March of the Oni and the one hundred fifty-second overall of *LEGO Ninjago & My Little Pony: Masters of Friendship*. It marks season ten's midseason finale.

In this episode, Wu, Garmadon, Celestia and Luna take a "bucket-list" brother and sister vacation while Lloyd, Twilight and their friends struggle to cover the princesses' many royal duties alone.

## Summary

*"Wu, Garmadon, Celestia and Luna take a "bucket-list" brother and sister vacation while Lloyd, Twilight and their friends struggle to cover the princesses' many royal duties alone. But soon they find out during their vacation, that they have many different perspectives on how to spend their break, which drives tension."*

## Plot

### From no help to too much help

The episode begins at Sweet Apple Acres, where a giant turtle is eating all of Applejack's family's apple trees. When Spike is caught by the giant turtle's long tongue and in danger of being eaten, the Mane Six and the Ninja's work together to save him and get the turtle to stop eating the trees. Before Twilight Sparkle can teleport the giant turtle somewhere else, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna as well as Wu and Garmadon appear to step in and take over, attacking the creature a few times before teleporting it.

After spending time with Kai, Jay, Cole, Zane, and Wu in the First Realm and helping Star Swirl the Bearded protect Ponyville during King Sombra's return, Celestia, Luna, Wu and Garmadon have come to enjoy being part of the action and making a difference in the citizens of Ponyville's and Ninjago City's lives from outside the throne room. As a result, they go overboard helping ponies and citizens with the simplest of tasks.

The Mane Six and Ninja meet at the Castle of Friendship to discuss the four royals, who seem so overeager to help others that no one can do anything on their own without the rulers intervening. Twilight fears that Celestia and Luna have changed their minds about retiring and do not believe the Mane Six are capable of taking their places as rulers of Equestria, while Lloyd is afraid that Wu and Garmadon's helping will distract them and fear for bigger troubles. When the four rulers burst in seeking even more action, everyone tells them that there are plenty of fun things to do aside from trying to be heroes.

Pinkie Pie suggests that the four make a "bucket list" of all the things they ever wanted to try but never had the chance to, while Jay rambles on about a map he had when he was little of fun landmarks in Equestria and Ninjago City he dreamed of visiting. When Celestia and Wu have doubts about leaving the castle unsupervised, Twilight and Lloyd offers to have them and their friends cover for them as practice for when the rulers finally retire.

### Wu, Garmadon, Celestia and Luna's royal vacation

At Canterlot Castle, Celestia and Luna excitedly prepare for their impending vacation, but while Celestia craves adventure and excitement, Luna wishes for some relaxation from her dream-watching duties. They decide to take turns doing what they each wish to do during their "sister trip" in order to accommodate both of their desires. Wu and Garmadon eventually walk in, ready to leave.

Just before the rulers leave on their vacation, they give Twilight, Lloyd and their friends instructions for an upcoming ceremony called the "Royal Swanifying", a celebration and party in honor of all the swans in the royal castle lake. They also entrust Twilight with the task of raising the sun and moon in their absence and give her an amulet imbued with a small portion of their magic to help her with this task. Lloyd is also entrusted to guard the castle in case of any danger with the Overlord. Twilight and Lloyd are particularly determined to show the rulers that they and their friends can handle whatever the rulers job requires.

The four set off on their vacation, and through the song Lotta Little Things, they indulge in various activities that they have always wanted to do, including sightseeing, riding rollercoasters, and seeing stage and magic shows. However, while Celestia and Wu enjoy the more exciting and thrill-seeking activities, Luna and Garmadon prefer the slower and more relaxing ones.

### Swan parties and disagreements

Back at Canterlot Castle, Fancy Pants, Jet Set, and Upper Crust enter the throne room and discover that the Mane Six and the Ninja's have assumed the royal's duties for the day. As the heads of the Royal Swanifying Committee, the three aristocrats offer their services to help with the Swanifying ceremony, but Twilight and Lloyd decline their offer. As the offended upper-class ponies take their leave, Twilight and Lloyd tell their friends that accepting help would be the same as admitting they cannot handle the jobs on their own, much to the friends confusion.

Meanwhile, the royals continue to work through their bucket list, partaking in activities that one of them greatly enjoys and the other does not—zip-lining, cave spelunking, skydiving, and mountain climbing for Celestia and Wu, and going to the post office, getting a makeover, and visiting an art museum for Luna and Garmadon. Their disagreement gets so heated that they finally voice their discontent toward each other during a picnic, when the two different perspectives of the siblings collide into one scene.

Luna accuses Celestia of always wanting things to be her way, going so far as to suggest she wishes Luna was still trapped in the moon so that she could rule Equestria by herself. Celestia argues, however, that Luna refuses to be happy and that she faces the constant pressure of being responsible for both Equestria and her little sister. Meanwhile, Garmadon accuses Wu of always taking the role of logic and wisdom and always having the bigger potential even thinking that it was better he be consumed by the great devourer and distant from everyone so Wu could have everyone talk about how great he was and as a result having a less healthy relationship with his family, with Wu retaliating that it was not what their father, the First Spinjitzu Master, wanted as he always hated feeling he had more potential if his brother was always pushed aside, and just wanted a healthy relationship with the family he had as much as Garmadon did after the great devourer. When the siblings get so upset that they use the Royal Canterlot Voice on each other and even unleash parts of their powers. They decide to go their separate ways and enjoy the rest of their vacation alone.

### Even princesses and ninja's need help

Twilight, Lloyd and their friends struggle to get everything ready for the Swanifying ceremony, and Fancy Pants barges in at various points to voice his concerns and criticisms. Little by little, Twilight, Lloyd and their friends get overwhelmed with all the ceremony-planning duties that continue to pile up and hijinks ensue. When the two wonder how the rulers handle all of these tasks each year on top of ruling the kingdom, Fancy Pants reveals that the princesses never do all the ceremony planning by themselves, which is why they appoint committees.

At Fancy Pants' suggestion, the team entrust the individual ceremony-planning duties to members of the royal committees. Rainbow Dash tells Upper Crust to prepare the food while Kai orders the drinks, Rarity tells Jet Set to retrieve party decorations while Nya hangs them up, and Fluttershy tells Fleur de Lis to handle guests at the castle gates waiting to get inside, with Zane accompanying them with philosophical talks so "They don't feel too uninterested". Helping keep when faced with large piles of garbage to clear away, Pinkie Pie and Jay recruit the help of the giant turtle from the beginning of the episode.

### A royal reconciliation

On a sunny beach without Celestia and Wu, Luna and Garmadon finally get to relax like they wanted. However, when they sees other sister pairs having fun together on the beach, they start to get lonely and end up getting severely sunburned, saying that they both were much wiser and had better advice. Meanwhile, Celestia goes skydiving and Wu goes exploring in a forest, but Wu gets lost without Garmadon's better sense of adventure and brawns, and so is not able to recognise new species of animals. He eventually gets apprehensive and hides somewhere, saying that Garmadon was always better at standing against the odd. Surprisingly Celestia is hiding alongside Wu and agrees with him.

The two sisters accidentally cross paths while climbing Mount Filly-mane-jaro, Luna wishing to see the sunrise and Celestia wishing to see the moonset. Despite their earlier argument, they agree to climb the mountain together. Meanwhile Wu goes to a hillside showcase that he was originally going to sign he and Garmadon up for in a music act, when Garmadon spots him about to go backstage. He walks up to him as he and Wu have a banter about how they hadn't played any music in years and years, since it was a hobby they both had in common, and despite the conflicts, Garmadon goes backstage with Wu, thus starting another two perspective instance in one scene. At the top of the mountain, the sisters watch the sunrise and moonset side-by-side. Celestia and Luna admit to each other that, for all the grief they give one another, each of them cannot bear living without the other, meanwhile backstage, Wu and Garmadon admit their faults and experiences, while Wu encourages Garmadon with how even in his darkest times, he still had and still has family who understood and deeply cared for him, especially his son Lloyd and even after everything they can still work together to combat what comes their way, even their own faults. Garmadon takes that to heart and both of the pair of siblings apologize for the harsh words they said. That's when Wu has an idea on how they can reconcile even better.

Celestia and Luna then see another hill with a light filled stage and realise that Wu and Garmadon might be there. They fly over to the next hill and spot a crowd of people cheering. Wu and Garmadon are then presented on stage about to perform, Wu having a Shamisen in the form of an Electric Guitar, and Garmadon having a Keytar, ready to reconcile by performing music in front of the audience, something they haven't done for many years and can do together. They soon perform and sing "Two Voices, One Song", with Celestia and Luna cheering them on. After the song is finished, the scheduled time for the moon to set and the sun to rise is here, but the rulers notice the sun and moon moving wildly and uncontrollably in the sky and quickly realize that Twilight is having trouble with the sun/moon amulet they gave her. At the castle, Twilight tries to reset the amulet with a tool that Sunburst gave Spike, with Lloyd and the Ninja in a stressful state trying to help her, but she accidentally breaks it. The episode ends with the rulers heading back to the castle while Twilight and Lloyd cry out for some adhesive tape.

## Cast

* Applejack - Ashleigh Ball
* Cole - Kirby Morrow
* Fancy Pants - Trevor Devall
* Fluttershy - Andrea Libman
* Garmadon - Mark Oliver
* Jay - Michael Adamthwaite
* Kai - Vincent Tong
* Lloyd Garmadon - Sam Vincent
* Misako - Kathleen Barr
* Mrs. Cake - Tabitha St. Germain
* Nurse - Cathy Weseluck
* Nya - Kelly Metzger
* Pinkie Pie - Andrea Libman
* Princess Celestia - Nicole Oliver
* Princess Luna - Tabitha St. Germain (Aloma Steele as her singing voice)
* Rainbow Dash - Ashleigh Ball
* Rarity - Tabitha St. Germain
* Spike - Cathy Weseluck
* The Overlord - Scott McNeil
* Twilight Sparkle - Tara Strong
* Wu - Paul Dobson
* Zane - Brent Miller

## Songs

* Lotta Little Things
* Two Voices, One Song

## Difference between this and the original MLP episode

* Ninjago City gets involved in the rulers overboard helping.
* Jay shows off a map of landmarks in the worlds of Equestria and Ninjago that the rulers can visit during their vacations.
* Wu and Garmadon perform a musical act on a hillside stage as an act of reconciliation and a brand new song is performed by Wu and Garmadon.

## Trivia

* The Overlord is revealed to not know of the term and meaning of vacation.
* This episode reveals more about the rulers flaws and worries and how they wished they had more healthier and happier relationships with their siblings, before realising they can still have one.