Iron & Stone

A Classic "who dunnit?" scenario.

**Iron & Stone** (**Iron and Stone** in other sources) is the second episode of Hunted and the one hundred twenty-ninth overall episode of *LEGO Ninjago & My Little Pony: Masters of Friendship*. It is based on the LEGO Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu episode of the same title and the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic episode, *The Hearth's Warming Club*.

In this episode, a prank gone wrong ruins Hearth's Warming/Christmas Eve preparations, and while Starlight tries to figure out which of her students is behind it, the students bond over shared memories of home. In the First Realm, Celestia, Kai, Cole, Zane, Jay and Wu attempt to free their friends, who have been captured by a tribe of Dragon Hunters. Meanwhile in Ninjago, Lloyd is reunited with some old friends who may prove valuable allies against Emperor Overlord.

## Plot

### The Dragon Pit

When the Dragon Hunters brought Luna, Cadance, and Twilight to Iron Baron, who mistook them for being Oni, he ordered them to be thrown into the Pit with Slab. Daddy No Legs lead them through Dead's End they noted they hunt dragons to use their Elemental Powers. In the distance, Celestia, Kai, Zane, Jay, Cole and Wu argued about how to save the Alicorn princesses. Wu found clothes to use as disguises, but when Cole failed to convince him otherwise, he had to chase after him.

### A Hearth's Warming prank

At the School of Friendship, while some students are excited to celebrate the holidays with their friends and families, others are more excited for the time off from classes. Starlight Glimmer points out that Hearth's Warming is also a time to remember when Earth ponies, Pegasi, and unicorns first came together during the founding of Equestria, as symbolized by the Fire of Friendship burning at the top of the Hearth's Warming tree.

Starlight officially dismisses the students for winter vacation and tells the Young Six to pack up so they can travel home for the holidays. As Spike wonders what his Hearth's Warming presents are, a cloaked figure sneaks onto the rafters and pours magical powder onto the Hearth's Warming tree, causing the Fire of Friendship to fizzle out and the Hearth's Warming decorations to be covered in purple, glue-like slime. Starlight, Rainbow Dash, and Spike spot the cloaked figure as they make their getaway, and as they give chase, they notice the culprit retreat into the student dorms.

Inside the dorms, the Young Six come out of their rooms while packing for winter break and ask what's going on. Starlight, Rainbow, and Spike show them the mess that the cloaked figure made in the school lounge and reason that one of the Young Six did it because there's no other exit out of the student dorms. The students all plead innocence, and despite Starlight giving the culprit a chance to be honest and take responsibility, no one steps forward. Therefore, Starlight makes all of the students clean up the mess while she and Rainbow Dash interrogate them one-by-one, with the guilty party being forced to stay at the school during winter break for extra friendship lessons. She adds that if no one confesses, then all of the students will have to stay at school for winter break.

### A serious meeting, but a perfect gift

It's Christmas Eve in Ninjago, except during Emperor Overlord's rule, all the holiday fun has been lost. The Resistance went into hiding at the Garbage Depot. Skylor revealed her powers returned, and Nya realized they could use the scrap metal to build armor and machines. Lloyd asks how they knew they needed help, and Mistaké offered to tell him what happened to the Ninja.

The Overlord asks the Sons of the Overlord generals who failed to kidnap Lloyd, and he punished Mr. E by taking him apart. Harumi tries to persuade him not to, but was unsuccessful. He then threatened to do the same to her if she fails, and she agreed despite being scared.

Mistaké told Lloyd the Ninja and the alicorn princesses are in the Realm of Oni and Dragons. He refused to believe there is no way to bring them back. She then explained he could help them by enduring. Mistaké went to Equestria to tell Starlight about the news that brings the fate of Twilight Sparkle and the Alicorn princesses. As she left, Lloyd drinks Earl Gray, bringing the best Christmas gift, only to remember that he needs his friends back.

### Stories around the tree

While Gallus is called into Starlight's counselling room first, Smolder tries to get one of the other four students to confess to pulling the prank, but each insists it wasn't them. Ocellus is particularly insistent because she has loved Hearth's Warming ever since it was introduced to the Changeling Kingdom one year prior. She tells her friends a story about how she and her fellow changelings started celebrating the holiday and adopted its various traditions, albeit a little bizarrely and literally than other creatures.

Starlight Glimmer and Rainbow Dash call Ocellus into the office next, and Gallus also claims to be innocent of pulling the prank. As Yona gets increasingly frustrated over not being able to celebrate the holidays with her fellow yaks, she explains that the yaks celebrate a different holiday called "Snilldar Fest", which the yaks celebrate by gathering a large pile of objects and spend an entire day smashing them. She then tells her friends a story about her and her family celebrating Snilldar the previous year.

Ocellus soon returns, and Sandbar is called into Starlight's counselling room next. When asked about her own holiday traditions, Smolder explains that the dragons celebrate the "Feast of Fire", in which the dragons come together to tell stories and the dragon who tells the best story wins a pile of gems. The most recent winning story was about a homeless dragon named Scales that was invited to the Dragon Lands by the then-Dragon Lord for a great feast. During the feast, Scales took advantage of the Dragon Lord's moment of defenselessness to seize power and claim control of the Dragon Lands for herself.

Sandbar returns, and Silverstream is called into Starlight's counselling room next. Smolder and Yona tell Sandbar to take the blame for the prank since he already lives in Ponyville, but Sandbar refuses and would rather spend the holidays with his family. He then tells a story about a previous Hearth's Warming where his crocheted doll nearly fell into the fireplace. Finally, both Smolder and Yona are called into the office, and the rest of the students fear being unable to go home for the holidays if none of them confesses soon.

### The culprit's confession

As the students lament their situation, Silverstream laments having to miss out on her own Mount Aris/Seaquestria tradition, the "Three Days of Freedom Celebration". As part of the celebration, the seaponies/Hippogriffs spend the first night in Seaquestria thanking the ocean for protecting them from the Storm King, the second day on Mount Aris celebrating the Storm King's defeat, and the third day partying with family members on land and sea and receiving gifts from Queen Novo. Gallus is so unfamiliar with the concept of family that he doesn't know what "cousins" are.

Smolder and Yona return to the lounge, and since no one confessed to the prank, they all fear being stuck at school for the holidays. Silverstream and Ocellus start to cry about not being able to see their families, and the others begin turning on one another, with Silverstream suggesting the possibility of there being more than one culprit. As a loud argument breaks out among them, Gallus breaks it up and remarks how lucky his friends are to have loved ones to spend the holidays with and share stories with.

Gallus explains that Griffonstone's "Blue Moon Festival" is the only time of year when griffons aren't mean to each other. When Silverstream says Gallus at least gets to spend it with his family, he reveals that he doesn't have a family and never felt like he had a place in Griffonstone. He also admits that he's the one who pulled the prank because he doesn't want to go home for winter break and wanted to stay with his friends for a little longer. He states that he's only confessing now so that his friends would stop fighting and be allowed to go home to be with their families.

### Mistaké's gift to Starlight

Before Gallus can confess what he did to his teachers, Starlight, Rainbow Dash, and Spike appear, having heard the whole thing from outside the room. While Starlight commends Gallus for his honesty, she states that he still has to take responsibility for his actions, which means staying at school during winter break for extra friendship lessons. Silverstream, Ocellus, Yona, Sandbar, and Smolder offer to stay with Gallus at the school so that he won't be lonely. Mistaké finally went to the School of Friendship and tells Starlight about headmare Twilight's fate. Starlight and Rainbow were both shocked that headmare Twilight was in the Realm of Oni and Dragons with Celestia, Luna and Cadance, and she was worried that how long she will stay. Mistaké tells Starlight that she will return once she has the magic within. Starlight Glimmer is not alone anymore with the Young Six's help, leaving a cup of Earl Gray to clear her mind.

Realizing that their students don't need extra lessons after all, Starlight and Rainbow invite the Young Six to a holiday dinner with the rest of the Mane Six, and the students happily accept.

### The Princesses vs. Slab

After Chew Toy introduced himself, they are brought into the Pit. After Celestia, Kai, Jay, Zane, Cole and Wu narrowly escaped Skullbreaker, they released chains so they could used them to hold Slab down. Just before Slab could attack Cadance with Earth, Luna used her magic to freeze him. Iron Baron remembered Oni don't have Elemental Powers or magic and ordered his Hunters to capture them.

## Cast

* Arkade - Michael Donovan
* Chew Toy - Alan Marriott
* Cole - Kirby Morrow
* Daddy No Legs - Ian James Corlett
* Dareth - Alan Marriott
* Gallus - Gavin Langelo
* Griffin Turner - Doron Bell Jr.
* Harumi - Britt McKillip
* Heavy Metal - Kathleen Barr
* Iron Baron - Brian Dobson
* Jay - Michael Adamthwaite
* Jet Jack - Rhona Rees
* Kai - Vincent Tong
* Karlof - Scott McNeil
* Lloyd - Sam Vincent
* Misako - Kathleen Barr
* Mistaké - Tabitha St. Germain
* Nya - Kelly Metzger
* Ocellus - Dewyn Dalton
* P.I.X.A.L. - Jennifer Hayward
* Princess Cadance - Britt McKillip
* Princess Celestia - Nicole Oliver
* Princess Luna - Tabitha St. Germain
* Rainbow Dash - Ashleigh Ball
* Sandbar - Vincent Tong
* Scar the Skullbreaker - Michael Adamthwaite
* Silverstream - Lauren Jackson
* Skylor - Heather Doerksen
* Smolder - Shannon-Chan Kent
* Spike - Cathy Weseluck
* Starlight Glimmer - Kelly Sheridan
* The Overlord - Scott McNeil
* Tox - Maggie Blue O'Hara
* Twilight Sparkle - Tara Strong
* Wu - Madyx Whiteway
* Yona - Katrina Salisbury
* Zane - Brent Miller

## Locations Visited

* Ninjago
	+ Ninjago City
		- Garbage Depot
		- Borg Tower
* Equestria
	+ Ponyville
		- School of Friendship
* Realm of Oni and Dragons
	+ Dead's End
		- The Pit

## Differences between this episode, the original Ninjago episode and MLP episode "The Hearth's Warming Club"

* Mistaké tells Starlight and Rainbow Dash that Twilight, Celestia, Luna and Cadance are at the First Realm.
* Kai and Zane's names, Snake Jaguar and the Red Shogun are used as their disguise. Jay's new disguise name is Cloudy Zap, while Celestia's disguise name is Celeste.
* Twilight, Luna, and Cadance face Slab instead of Kai, Zane, and Jay.

## Songs

* Hearth's Warming Eve is Here Once Again (Sandbar Version)

## Trivia

* Neuro, Tox, Paleman, and Mistaké reappear in this episode.
	+ However, not all of the Elemental Masters reappear, the reason being given in future episodes.
* It is the second episode to be centered around Hearth's Warming/Christmas. The first is "A Christmas Tail"
	+ However, this episode is not being "Christmassy" enough, due to Emperor Overlord's rule.
	+ Nevertheless, "The Best Gift Ever" is the true Hearth's Warming/Christmas special that takes place between this and the next season.
* Mistaké's character is explored more in this episode. She states that she is a person that made many mistakes, thus explaining how she is so wise and how she got the name.
* The Overlord kills/destroys Mr. E for failure to capture Lloyd.
* Mr. E is the first major death of Season 9, as well as the first major death since Hutchins in Season 8.
* Harumi's face showed fear and regret after the Overlord threatened her life. This hints at possible redemption from her.
* The Day of the Departed is mentioned in this episode.
* This episode marks the first time Tox has spoken during the show.
	+ She now has an new voice provided by Maggie Blue O'Hara instead of Ian James Corlett.
* This episode is also the first time Shade is referred to by his real name, having been called Shadow in the fourth season.
* Iron Baron claims he has not encountered any Oni in the First Realm. This raises the question as to where the Oni are and what happened to them.
	+ Iron Baron also reveals that Oni are shapeshifters.
* The shirt Wu wears while disguised is the same as his teen version, sans the sleeves, which first appears in "The Glided Path".
* Cole uses the alias "Rocky Dangerbuff" again, with the same mustache. This is the same for Kai and Zane, as they use the alias "Snake Jaguar" and "Red Shogun".
	+ Coincidentally enough, "Dangerbuff" is an actual Dragon Hunter Clan.
	+ In addition to this, Jay's new alias is "Cloudy Zap".
* Skylor confirms her powers of Amber have returned.
* Mistaké informs Lloyd and Starlight that their friends were sent to the Realm of Oni and Dragons.
* Iron Baron realizes that the princesses are not Oni when Luna uses her magic, as according to him, only Dragons have Elemental Powers while Oni have just Destruction.
	+ Iron Baron recognizes the skill of Spinjitzu and even appears familiar with the legend of the First Spinjitzu Master.
* During Silverstream's story, it is the first in-show appearance of the Storm King and Queen Novo (even though it was a flashback cut-out paper model).
* Cozy Glow makes a cameo in this episode.
* Cadance is still exhibiting a loss of sanity since the previous episode, though she briefly has a look of shock on her face.

## Errors

* At one point when Neuro was introduced, his hair was completely white.
* When Tox asks Dareth "what is he supposed to be," her mouth doesn't move.
* Skylor introduces Lloyd to the other elemental master, even though they have all already met and worked together.