Too Many Pinkie Pies
| "Too Many Pinkie Pies" | |
|---|---|
| My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode | |
 A horde of Pinkie Pies begin cloning themselves at the Mirror Pool. | |
| Episode no. | Season 3 Episode 3 |
| Written by | Dave Polsky |
| Original air date | November 17, 2012 |
| Running time | 22 minutes |
"Too Many Pinkie Pies" is the third episode of the third season of the animated television series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. The episode was written by Dave Polsky. It originally aired on The Hub on November 17, 2012. In this episode, Pinkie Pie uses the Mirror Pool to create clones of herself so she can spend time with all her friends simultaneously, but the situation spirals out of control when the clones begin creating more clones.
Plot
[edit]| External videos | |
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 Too Many Pinkie Pies (full episode) — Official upload of the episode onto YouTube |
| My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic |
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Pinkie Pie becomes overwhelmed by the impossible task of attending every fun activity her friends have planned. Rainbow Dash and Applejack extend competing invitations for the same afternoon, and Pinkie grows increasingly distressed about having to choose between them. After Twilight Sparkle jokingly suggests that Pinkie would need to duplicate herself, Pinkie recalls an old legend and rushes into the Everfree Forest to find the mysterious Mirror Pool.
Pinkie discovers an underground chamber containing a magical pool that brings her reflection to life as a perfect clone. Initially planning to create just enough duplicates to attend both activities, Pinkie returns to the Mirror Pool with her clone when they realize that even two Pinkies cannot handle all the social obligations around town. The clones begin duplicating themselves independently, creating an enormous horde of identical Pinkie Pies who spread across Ponyville. The clones wreaks havoc throughout the town, disrupting Rainbow Dash's peaceful pond relaxation and destroying the Apple family's barn. As angry ponies gather at the library to complain about property damage and general chaos, Twilight and Spike research the Mirror Pool and discover a spell that can banish the duplicates back to where they came.
The major challenge lies in identifying the original Pinkie Pie, since the magic can also eliminate the real one. After failed attempts to distinguish between the countless identical Pinkies based on appearance or behavior, the real Pinkie Pie suggests implementing a test so mind-numbingly boring that only someone who genuinely cares about her friendships would endure it. Twilight gathers all the clones in the town hall and announces they will literally be watching wet paint dry. One by one, the clones become distracted, and Twilight immediately banishes them back to the Mirror Pool with her spell. The real Pinkie Pie proves her authenticity by staying focused throughout the whole test. After celebrating her victory, Pinkie writes to Princess Celestia about learning that true friendship sometimes requires making difficult choices about how to spend your time.
Reception
[edit]Sherilyn Connelly, the author of Ponyville Confidential, gave the episode a "B" rating.[1]
In a critical analysis of the episode, author Jen A. Blue examined how "Too Many Pinkie Pies" confronts the flatness of Pinkie Pie's usual portrayal by having her face "avatars of her flat persona in the form of her duplicates" and wrote that the episode functions as a critique of Pinkie Pie's portrayal in fan works, which tend to depict her either as a pure fun-seeker or a chaotic avatar. Blue analyzed Pinkie's character through Daniel Kahneman's theory of two selves and wrote that Pinkie has a developed experiential self but a stunted remembering self, and described how the Mirror Pool creates simplistic duplicates who have no memory and care nothing for the future. She wrote that Pinkie experiences an identity crisis because "surrounded by living Pinkie Pie memes, she is no longer even sure that she is the real Pinkie Pie" and concluded that the final test forces character growth, as Pinkie is forced to use her remembering side to keep her identity and friendships intact.[2]
Daniel Alvarez of Unleash The Fanboy gave the episode a rating of 4 out of 5 and called it "one of the most entertaining of the series yet." He praised Pinkie Pie as being "at her finest, proving she can lead an episode once again" and complimented the strong writing. Alvarez wrote that the Mirror Pool clone concept was well-executed and appreciated a joke where a Pinkie Pie clone's face morphs into something resembling a pony from the previous generation as "a funny poke at the old My Little Pony for older fans."[3]
Brendan Kachel of flayrah wrote that he liked the episode because "despite the weird premise [...] we get to see Pinkie is aware of the consequences of her actions" and noted that the real Pinkie Pie is devastated when the clones' quest for fun devastates everything else.[4] Hillary Busis of Entertainment Weekly wrote that the episode was "just another day in Equestria".[5] Ed Liu of Anime Superhero News called the episode "fun, but [felt] slightly off" and criticized that the resolution did not work out as well as it should have.[6] Ewan Kirkland compared the theme of "Too Many Pinkie Pies" to that of the season 2 finale "A Canterlot Wedding", writing that both episodes deal with "the substitution of a mechanical double".[7]
See also
[edit]- List of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episodes
- "Send in the Clones" (The Simpsons), a segment of the episode "Treehouse of Horror XIII" with a similar plot
References
[edit]- ^ Connelly (2017), p. 80
- ^ Blue, Jen A. (2016-01-20). "Maybe something less over-the-top and not so super-hyper (Too Many Pinkie Pies)". My Little Po-Mo: Unauthorized Critical Essays on My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Season Three and Derivative Works. pp. 21–25.
- ^ Alvarez, Daniel (2012-11-17). "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic 'Too Many Pinkie Pies' Review". Unleash The Fanboy. Archived from the original on 2021-07-28. Retrieved 2025-06-30.
- ^ Kachel, Brendan (2014-06-17). "Review: 'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic' Pinkie Pie Party DVD (with bonus Season 2 DVD review)". flayrah. Retrieved 2025-06-30.
- ^ Busis, Hillary (2012-11-16). "'My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic': Exclusive clip!". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2025-06-30.
- ^ Liu, Ed (2013-03-04). "Review: "My Little Pony: Pinkie Pie Party" and "Chuck & Friends: When Trucks Fly" Are More Fun from the Hub". Anime Superhero News. Retrieved 2025-06-30.
- ^ Kirkland, Ewan (2017). ""Little girls and the things that they love": My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Audience, Identity, and the Privilege of Contemporary Fan Culture" (PDF). Camera Obscura. 32 (2). Duke University Press: 89–115. doi:10.1215/02705346-3924661.
Bibliography
[edit]- Connelly, Sherilyn (2017-04-01). Ponyville Confidential: The History and Culture of My Little Pony, 1981-2016. McFarland. ISBN 978-1-4766-6209-1.
