For the titular comic book superheroes, see Power Ponies (characters).

Power Ponies
Season №:	4
Season episode №:	6
Overall episode №:	71
Original airdate:	December 21, 2013
Written by:	Meghan McCarthy, Charlotte Fullerton, & Betsy McGowen
Storyboard:	Mike West and Steve Garcia[1]
Featured characters:	Mane-iac
See also
transcript • gallery • allusions animation errors • statistics • speculation
Episode guide
Previous Flight to the Finish	Next Bats!

Power Ponies (erroneously titled Super Ponies on Netflix) is the sixth episode of the fourth season of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic and the seventy-first episode overall. In this episode, Spike and the Mane Six are sucked into a comic book world and must defeat a maniacal supervillain in order to escape.

Production and development

On July 20, 2013, an animatic clip of this episode was shown at San Diego Comic-Con International. In the clip, Applejack/Mistress Mare-velous, Fluttershy/Saddle Rager, Pinkie Pie/Fili-Second, Rainbow Dash/Zapp, Rarity/Radiance, Spike/Hum Drum, Twilight Sparkle/Masked Matter-Horn, the Mane-iac, and more characters appear.^[2][3]

Marcel Duperreault, Todd Araki, Jason Fredrickson, and Adam McGhie won a 2014 Leo Award for their work on this episode for "Best Overall Sound in an Animation Program or Series".^[4][5]

Summary

Late night reading

Twilight Sparkle is asleep in her bed when she's stirred awake by a lamp switching on. She sees Spike reading a comic book and tells him to go to sleep, but Spike asks for two more minutes. He proceeds to talk at length about the Power Ponies, their sidekick Hum Drum, and the evil Mane-iac. Twilight sympathizes with Spike's investment in a book, but states they'll need to be well-rested to help fix up Princess Celestia and Princess Luna's old castle in the morning. Spike relents and goes to bed, but when Twilight sees him fumbling in the dark for his comic, Twilight allows him two more minutes to read.

Diving into a comic

The next morning, Twilight and her friends take part in refurbishing Celestia and Luna's old castle. Spike wishes to pitch in, but the ponies politely decline. Twilight tells him to find someplace quiet to read his comic, and Spike shuffles off, feeling useless.

Spike goes to Celestia and Luna's reading room to read, sympathizing with the bumbling Hum Drum. When he suddenly reaches the end of the comic, he finds a footnote in small, hard-to-read text. As Twilight and the others take a break from cleaning and come looking for Spike, he uses a magnifying glass to read the footnote:

"You can return to the place you started when the Mane-iac is defeated. Take a closer look to join the adventure in this book.."

— Spike

This causes a magic spell in the comic book to come to life, and Spike is sucked inside its pages. Twilight and her friends, in their attempt to save him, get dragged inside as well, except Pinkie who just jumps in after them.

Welcome to Maretropolis

Spike, now in superhero attire, regains consciousness on the roof of a building in Maretropolis. Behind him, he sees his pony friends in superhero attire as well and recognizes them as the heroes in his comic—the Power Ponies.

Suddenly, there's an explosion at the museum across the street, and the Mane-iac emerges from the smoke, laughing maniacally and holding an orb surging with electricity. When Applejack and Rainbow Dash wonder what's going on, Spike explains that they were transported into his comic book and that the only way out to defeat the Mane-iac. The Mane-iac attacks the ponies with a pretzel cart and a mailbox; as Pinkie Pie dodges the mailbox, she demonstrates the super speed of her Power Pony persona Fili-Second.

Applejack tries to wrangle the Mane-iac with her lasso, but it works against her, and she pins herself to a lamppost. Twilight's attempts at using the Masked Matter-Horn's powers fizzle, Rainbow uses Zapp's powers to create a tornado instead of lightning, Rarity's powers as Radiance prove less than helpful, and Fluttershy's anger-based powers as Saddle Rager don't manifest because she's not angry. After watching in amusement, the Mane-iac takes her leave, but not before addressing Spike by his designated role as Hum Drum.

After Spike explains that the lasso Mistress Mare-velous uses is psychically connected to her, Applejack reins in the tornado with Mistress Mare-velous' powers, and Spike once again explains to his friends that the only way out of the comic book world is to stop the Mane-iac from using her doomsday device. While Rainbow Dash is excited about having superpowers, Spike is less than thrilled about being the powerless Hum Drum. Twilight encourages Spike by saying he's not really Hum Drum, but he is still in low spirits.

Time to Power Pony up!

Spike leads the Power Ponies to the Mane-iac's headquarters: her shampoo factory. Before Twilight can come up with a plan, Rainbow Dash gives away her and her friends' position by zapping the building with lightning. As Spike stays back, the Mane-iac's henchponies emerge from the factory and attack. Despite Fluttershy's inability to get angry, the Power Ponies subdue and restrain the henchponies.

When the Mane-iac herself appears, she immobilizes the Power Ponies with her "hairspray ray of doom". She leaves Hum Drum behind, considering it pointless to use her spray on him. Spike watches helplessly as the Mane-iac and her henchponies take the Power Ponies prisoner.

The sidekick saves the day

Spike sneaks into the factory through an air duct, all the while calling himself useless, and finds his friends still immobilized and inside a big cage. Each time the effect of the spray wears off, one of the henchponies sprays them again.

The Mane-iac uses the Electro-Orb to power her hair dryer-shaped cannon, and tells the Power Ponies her plan to use it on them and the citizens of Maretropolis and cause their manes to grow wildly. When Fluttershy reminds her of Hum Drum, the Mane-iac once again dismisses the little guy as useless. The Power Ponies disagree, with Twilight noting that in their world, he always comes through.

Encouraged by his friends' words of praise, Spike springs into action. As the Mane-iac monologues to the ponies in true villain fashion, Spike ensnares some of the henchponies in a large tarp and immobilizes more with the Mane-iac's hairspray, allowing the Power Ponies to break free. The ponies fight off the rest of the henchponies as the Mane-iac powers up her cannon to shoot Fluttershy who isn't trying to use her powers. When a firefly gets in her line of fire and she swats it away, Fluttershy loses her temper, and the powers of Saddle Rager finally manifest, turning her into a large, muscular monster.

The Mane-iac fires her weapon at Saddle Rager, but its beam bounces back at her, and Saddle Rager smashes the weapon to pieces. The effects of the weapon entraps the Mane-iac in her own mane like a straitjacket. Spike declares the Power Ponies victorious, but doesn't finish his narration before the comic transports him and the ponies away.

Epilogue

Spike and the others are transported out of the comic book and back into Celestia and Luna's old reading room, returned to normal. As the ponies shake off the excitement of their latest adventure, Pinkie Pie offers the group cupcakes, which she picked up from the Maretropolis Bakery a half-second before their return home. Twilight commends Spike for his heroism, and Spike learns that he doesn't need superpowers to be a super friend.

When Twilight asks where Spike got the comic book, he says he got it in a store in Canterlot that sold "enchanted" comic books, not realizing that the comics were magically enchanted as opposed to telling enchanting stories. The ponies and Spike leaves the room, and the comic book suddenly vanishes in a flash of white light.

Maretropolis

The events of the comic book take place in the city of Maretropolis, which the Mane-iac seeks to destroy with her doomsday device. It is a large urban setting with many skyscrapers. An airship of the same design as that used by some of the Apple family flies overhead. The main cast picks up the story on top of a building opposite the Maretropolis Museum, which houses the Electro-Orb and the Mane-iac has just broken into. After she escapes, the Power Ponies head to the Mane-iac's top secret headquarters, of which Spike apparently knows the location. It is a shampoo factory, with an animated neon sign outside, which housed a hair-care product company before the Mane-iac's accident. The city also contains a bakery 65 blocks away from the factory. Other features seen on the street are a mailbox and a pretzel stand.

Superhero theme

This is the show's second superhero-themed episode following The Mysterious Mare Do Well in Season 2. The references include:

• The Mane-iac's origin involving falling into a vat of chemical liquid is similar and likely a reference to that of the Joker in the 1988 graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke (which was incorporated into the 1989 film Batman).
• The Mane-iac's origin also involves being electrocuted by a downed power line, which is similar to Two-Face's origin in Batman: The Animated Series.
• Mane-iac uses her mane as a weapon the same way as Medusa from the Fantastic Four comics, Wedgie Woman from the Captain Underpants book series, and Sedusa from The Powerpuff Girls series (another show Lauren Faust worked on, created by her husband Craig McCracken), and the way she walks resembles that of Doctor Octopus from the Spider-Man comics.
• The comic book setting is named "Maretropolis", a clear play on the city of Metropolis in the Superman comics.
• When Spike sees the Mane 6 in their costumes, he says, "Holy new personas, ponies!", which was a running gag used by Robin in the 1960's live-action Batman series.
• Each of the Power Ponies is based on a hero/heroine from Marvel Comics or DC Comics.
  • Spike's Hum Drum costume has a color scheme similar to that of Robin's.
  • Saddle Rager's (Fluttershy) anger transformation ability is similar to that of The Incredible Hulk.
  • Fili-Second's (Pinkie Pie) superpowers and costume are similar to that of the Flash.
  • Mistress Mare-velous (Applejack) wields a lasso similar to that of Wonder Woman and gadgets similar to those of Batman.
  • Zapp's (Rainbow Dash) powers are based on those of Thor and Storm.
  • Radiance (Rarity) has creation powers similar to those of Green Lantern, although the color of her constructs is the same as that of the Star Sapphires, another group from the Green Lantern stories.
  • Masked Matter-Horn (Twilight Sparkle) has powers loosely based on those of Cyclops of the X-Men, according to Jim Miller,^[6] though they are more varied in effect.
• Spike ends their victory by saying "Once again, the day is saved," which the narrator ends each episode with in The Powerpuff Girls.
• The title of the episode, as well as those of the comic and the superhero team, are a slight shout-out to the Power Rangers franchise.

Quotes

For more quotes, see the episode's transcript.

Pinkie Pie: Pony power!

Spike: Holy new personas, ponies!

The Mane-iac: Power Ponies! [laughs] How kind of you to join us!

Main cast: Huh?

Spike: Fluttershy! You're Saddle Rager! Lose your temper, and you'll turn into a huge super-strong monster!

Fluttershy: Oh, gosh! That wouldn't... be very... polite!

Rainbow Dash: I was already awesome! And now we've all got superpowers!

Twilight Sparkle: All right, Power Ponies, here's the plan. Rarity, you, me and—

Rainbow Dash: Come on out, Mane-iac! Or the Power Ponies are comin' in!

[thunder crash]

Twilight Sparkle: So much for "element of surprise".

Applejack: Time to Power Pony up!

Pinkie Pie: Ooh! Nice catchphrase!

Pinkie Pie: Tag you're it! Tag you're it! Tag you're it! Tag you're it!

Fluttershy: Are you kidding me? I mean, I know you're evil and everything, but [getting frustrated] you hurt a teensy, little, harmless firefly?! Really?! Well you're just a great, big, meanie! [voice getting deeper] There! I said it! What makes you think you're so special?! Like the rules of common courtesy don't apply to you?! [voice getting even deeper] Why don't you pick on somepony your own size?!

Pinkie Pie: Cupcakes?

Rarity: How did you—

Pinkie Pie: Eh, we had a good half second before we got sucked back out of the comic, and the Maretropolis bakery was only sixty-five blocks away!

Gallery

Power Ponies image gallery

References

1. ↑ Jim Miller (2013-12-20). ... but tomorrow's #mlpseason4 .... Twitter. Retrieved on 2013 December 21.
2. ↑ SDCC 2013 MLP Panel Exclusive Season 4 Clip (2013-07-20). Retrieved on 2013 July 21.
3. ↑ Season 4 Animatics From SDCC 2013 Panel (High Quality) (2013-07-20). Retrieved on 2013 July 21.
4. ↑ 2014 Leo Award Nominees. Leo Awards. Retrieved on 2014 April 24.
5. ↑ 2014 Saturday Winners. Leo Awards. Retrieved on 2014 June 1.
6. ↑ Jim Miller (2013-12-21). Inspiration - TS - Cyclops AJ .... Twitter. Retrieved on 2013 December 27.

v • e Episodes, films, and animated shorts

My Little Pony Friendship is Magic — season one
Episode 1 Friendship is Magic, part 1	Episode 2 Friendship is Magic, part 2	Episode 3 The Ticket Master	Episode 4 Applebuck Season
Episode 5 Griffon the Brush Off	Episode 6 Boast Busters	Episode 7 Dragonshy	Episode 8 Look Before You Sleep
Episode 9 Bridle Gossip	Episode 10 Swarm of the Century	Episode 11 Winter Wrap Up	Episode 12 Call of the Cutie
Episode 13 Fall Weather Friends	Episode 14 Suited For Success	Episode 15 Feeling Pinkie Keen	Episode 16 Sonic Rainboom
Episode 17 Stare Master	Episode 18 The Show Stoppers	Episode 19 A Dog and Pony Show	Episode 20 Green Isn't Your Color
Episode 21 Over a Barrel	Episode 22 A Bird in the Hoof	Episode 23 The Cutie Mark Chronicles	Episode 24 Owl's Well That Ends Well
	Episode 25 Party of One	Episode 26 The Best Night Ever

My Little Pony Friendship is Magic — season two
Episode 1 The Return of Harmony Part 1	Episode 2 The Return of Harmony Part 2	Episode 3 Lesson Zero	Episode 4 Luna Eclipsed
Episode 5 Sisterhooves Social	Episode 6 The Cutie Pox	Episode 7 May the Best Pet Win!	Episode 8 The Mysterious Mare Do Well
Episode 9 Sweet and Elite	Episode 10 Secret of My Excess	Episode 11 Hearth's Warming Eve	Episode 12 Family Appreciation Day
Episode 13 Baby Cakes	Episode 14 The Last Roundup	Episode 15 The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000	Episode 16 Read It and Weep
Episode 17 Hearts and Hooves Day	Episode 18 A Friend in Deed	Episode 19 Putting Your Hoof Down	Episode 20 It's About Time
Episode 21 Dragon Quest	Episode 22 Hurricane Fluttershy	Episode 23 Ponyville Confidential	Episode 24 MMMystery on the Friendship Express
	Episode 25 A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1	Episode 26 A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2

My Little Pony Friendship is Magic — season three
Episode 1 The Crystal Empire - Part 1	Episode 2 The Crystal Empire - Part 2	Episode 3 Too Many Pinkie Pies	Episode 4 One Bad Apple
Episode 5 Magic Duel	Episode 6 Sleepless in Ponyville	Episode 7 Wonderbolts Academy	Episode 8 Apple Family Reunion
Episode 9 Spike at Your Service	Episode 10 Keep Calm and Flutter On	Episode 11 Just for Sidekicks	Episode 12 Games Ponies Play
Episode 13 Magical Mystery Cure

My Little Pony Friendship is Magic — season four
Episode 1 Princess Twilight Sparkle - Part 1	Episode 2 Princess Twilight Sparkle - Part 2	Episode 3 Castle Mane-ia	Episode 4 Daring Don't
Episode 5 Flight to the Finish	Episode 6 Power Ponies	Episode 7 Bats!	Episode 8 Rarity Takes Manehattan
Episode 9 Pinkie Apple Pie	Episode 10 Rainbow Falls	Episode 11 Three's A Crowd	Episode 12 Pinkie Pride
Episode 13 Simple Ways	Episode 14 Filli Vanilli	Episode 15 Twilight Time	Episode 16 It Ain't Easy Being Breezies
Episode 17 Somepony to Watch Over Me	Episode 18 Maud Pie	Episode 19 For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils	Episode 20 Leap of Faith
Episode 21 Testing Testing 1, 2, 3	Episode 22 Trade Ya!	Episode 23 Inspiration Manifestation	Episode 24 Equestria Games
	Episode 25 Twilight's Kingdom - Part 1	Episode 26 Twilight's Kingdom - Part 2

My Little Pony Equestria Girls — films and shorts
My Little Pony Equestria Girls	Rainbow Rocks animated shorts	My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks