Well we’ve done a fake snow day and a war movie. We might as well tackle the infamous spy break in trope. This was probably my favorite short out of the holiday special, but since I’m indecisive, that’s subjected to change every time I do one of these. You got night vision goggles, propel rope, spy music and split screens. Truly the makings of a great break in heist. But at least this is for a good cause. If I were to give this a moral, it would probably be to something plausible instead of doing something in a roundabout manner. Either that, or remember you have power that can make things easier. Let’s take a look and see where the holiday heist goes through.
So like any heist movie, we get kind of a slow build up. Pinkie talking about the toy drive to give donated gifts to kids along with her love of hot cocoa is very fitting for someone who loves to make people smile and happy. And this was just a cute face to have with a conversation like that…along with the marshmallow in her hot chocolate.
I know time is practically an illusion in this show and there’s no way of saying how long Sunset has been human in this world, but I sometimes forget she was a pony born and raised with moments like this. Like when was there a time she would need to know what a storage locker is in the human world? What would she need it for? What’s inside other than those gift donations that she’s been paying to keep this locker for? Maybe more relics from the pony world? Maybe letters from the ACTUAL human Sunset Shimmer? Find out next time in someone’s FIMfiction online.
Sunset: “I’ve been paying for it monthly and never used it.”
Twilight: “what is it? A Gym membership?”
Wow Twilight…just wow. I can’t tell if this was really the joke she wanted to do or if she knew I would be writing this at a time where people’s New Year’s Resolution would be to work out more and then fail before January even ended. And the fact that we don’t even get a rimshot here is kind of a crime only because of how proud she looked for that joke.
So in the most roundabout way that also involved an owl named Chad, the key to the storage locker is in Sunset’s locker in school. And with it being a holiday, of course the school would be closed. But let’s not have that stop them from at least trying.
This dialogue was not even needed, but I loved every second of it. Just the idea that getting clothes is worse than getting nothing at all during the toy festival was enough to trigger Rarity. At that point, I’m surprised she didn’t tackle RD when she said that.
And now the heist begins. Sunset really has seen too many spy movies to the point of breaking into their school in broad daylight with night vision goggles. Just a reminder, these goggles are better when it’s dark. In daylight, you might as well be looking directly at the sun.
I can neither confirm or deny if Sunset thinks Twilight is working for Anonymous if she thinks she can hack a motion security system while her and Pinkie sneak in through the air vents. Also, still loving these split screen moments with a mix of black and white noir style. It just makes the short more fun to watch.
Another element of this heist is also getting Fluttershy’s owl Chad to attack and distract the janitor, which is kinda messed up. But then again this is the same owl that tried to cook Rainbow Dash in Magical Mystery Cure. Girls you really shouldn’t be this fine about a guy being attacked by an owl. You never seen When Animals Attack?
No seriously. I think this owl has a thing against people. I don’t know many that are this aggressive for no reason. But then again if it’s for their Disney Princess Fluttershy, who knows what that owl would’ve done to that janitor.
Big props to the animators for these glasses. They’re just absolutely perfect. And this shot is so good and reeks of a heist well done. I would give it a perfect 10, but I need the owl to be wearing the glasses as well. Honestly, I don’t see how this plan can go wrong.
Oh yeah. There’s the issue of logic. Ok I’m glad they put this in as kind of a “don’t actually do this” moment, but with all due respect Twi. I can suspend my disbelief for the show about magical pony girls even for a little while. She is right about it being a breaking and entering that can get them arrested. Not to mention, Fluttershy wouldn’t have an animal attack anyone. Usually the animals would attack without being asked. Angel Bunny, anyone?
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| Twilight: “Climbing through a vent is dangerous and if a young person saw us doing it, they might try to imitate it and get hurt.” |
Uh…Pinkie Pie did you move the 4th wall somewhere? We kinda need it back now. Twilight is becoming too aware of things. But I guess there’s nothing we can do about these facts.
Oh good. Looks like Pinkie has a plan of her own. I don’t know if that counts for celebration or not though. Something tells me the common phrase of “it’s Pinkie Pie, don’t question it” is gonna be used a lot for her plan.
So her first step is baking a dozen pistachio cream cupcakes. As tasty as that sounds, this doesn’t sound like the best start to a heist. Unless it’s a jail breaking heist and there’s a nail file and hammer in the cupcakes.
Ah. So instead of a nail file in the cupcakes, she’s using them to lure out Principal Celestia from her office. I like this kind of small call back to Celestia being into cake. It’s been in the original show and it’s even been in Pony Life. Why couldn’t it be banana cupcakes though? And I am very curious how Celestia was able to smell cupcakes all the way from inside her office. She had to leave the office within the office, go down the halls to the front door. Maybe her window was cracked open but still. Great smelling sense Sun Butt.
They really don’t do Celestia justice with these baked good moments. But I can at least say regardless of all the moments she’s had cake in her hands, she at least maintains that great figure, even if she’s a bit of a messy eater.
It looks like once the key has been salvaged from Sunset’s locker, it’s time to chow down on come chocolate covered crunch nuggets. Not for anything involving the heist. She’s just hungry after using her licorice rope to hold the door open…except she ate that after using it. I don’t think this plan was too thought out, but at least we get cute cat faced Pinkie Pie out of it.
And again, we get a nod of logic from Twilight, who I can only assume she’s been writing down the plans as they’re being told just to cause say it’s a terrible idea. She was kind of right about baking cupcakes to lure Celestia out in time for the toy drive, but it’s Pinkie Pie. I’m sure she’s baked at rapid speeds before. And really Twilight, you’ve never heard of using licorice as a rope? I’m sure we would need to call Mythbusters to get the actual facts, but I don’t need that much logic in my cartoon horse show.
Ok with this many ideas going on, I might need to call this another Choose Your Ending Follow Up. But this had to be my favorite idea of “screw the rules, we have powers” and the fact that it came from Applejack is pretty impressive. With how eager Rainbow Dash was in Spring Breakdown to stop an evil magic villain, I would’ve expected this from her, but no. Our country girl is pulling up in a motorcycle like a boss ready to unleash her super strength.
So we not only got an awesome magical girl transformation and the recent pony up outfit for Applejack, but she also didn’t need her friends around for it to work. I want to say this is just because they still can’t fully explain the magic and Applejack knows her powers would get the job done…but I don’t care. I’m not the biggest AJ fan, but this brought out the fan girl squeal in no time.
Ok smart for using her powers, but major points off for using them to practically destroy the school’s foundation, cause property damage of anything inside, and badly injuring anybody that’s also inside. This didn't even get a long winded rant from Twilight. It was just a flat out "not happening". This was not the brightest moment for Applejack, but A for effort on the cool transformation.
Well it looks like Miss Downer is gonna plan the attack for the key. Maybe she’s calling a lock expert to open the door? Maybe she can remotely turn off the alarms inside with her phone? Maybe she’s looking for another spy music track to go with her idea?
Or she could’ve just called Celestia inside to open the door for the key. Yeah that works, too I guess. Not as much fun and excitement, but it got the job done. I can’t argue with that. Wonder what would’ve happened if Celestia wasn’t in the school though. Could’ve used Twilight’s telekinetic powers to at least levitate the key through the locker and through the door or something. It’s an option, but luck was on their side.
And it looks like they were able to get the gifts and pass them out at the mall. You even got Celestia and Luna together along with Curly Winds and Wiz Kid possibly shopping for each other’s holiday gift. This was a really sweet moment with the Humane 7 and the kids and all that heisting was for a good reason. At least compared to Rainbow Dash trying to get a snow day.
Uh oh! Looks like something else was left at school. This time a bag of gift cards they wanted to cash in. And seeing as we’ve seen Celestia and Luna walking around the mall, it’s a slim chance anybody would be in the school. Not to mention this was probably later in the day so anybody left inside like teachers or janitors would’ve already left for the day.
Looks like Twilight has an idea and a pair of those really cool shades as well. Perfect moment to end on really since everybody loves sequel bait. Also, rule of thumb, best not to put glasses over glasses. Depending on the fit and how much your prescription glasses are out, they can get scratched by the sunglasses.
And that was Winter Break In, an awesome short about doing things the right way and possibly the fun way. This was just a ton of fun to watch and seeing everybody’s ideas about how to break into a school was great. It’s such a school trope and 9 out of 10 they usually get caught. Not a lot of them think about just asking a teacher or janitor to get something from inside a locker or help them out. This was just a straightforward answer that took no time at all. It was the right answer, but everything else was the more fun answer. So remember kids, no breaking into places that are closed, don’t crawl in air vents, and be sure to not use your superpowers to destroy your school. I’m Penny Wrights and I have a pistachio cream cupcake recipe to find.
