Nightmare Night approaches ever so closer. One of the most fun nights of the year for every colt and filly or in the case of this issue, every creature. Believe it or not, for the first time last year, the IDW MLP comic series did a Nightmare Night comic but the focus was not on the Mane Six but rather on the Student/Young Six.
If you've not seen the previous season of the show, Twilight has opened up a School of Friendship and is the Headmare of the school after some debacle involving a pony voiced by Maurice LaMarche. However, we aren't here to talk about that but rather this comic focusing on the Student Six. You'll notice that the Student Six are made up of varying creatures that the franchise has visited. You have Silverstream is a Hippogriff/Seapony (we first met those in the movie), Yona, a Yak, and the most tolerable one at that. Smolder, dragons have been here since the first episode. Sandbar, an Earth Pony and the only student that already lived in Ponyville. Gallus, the third Griffon character that we've met throughout the show's run that has had any meaningful contribution to the plot. And finally, Ocellus, a Changeling that we met after they had been reformed. With that outta the way, let's move on.
Cover
Okay, this cover doesn't have a whole lot to do with the story but it does invoke the Nightmare Night/Halloween feeling dressing the three elder princesses as witches in front of a cauldron. It has such a great use of Halloween iconography and when you three characters dressed as witches, it's easy to immediately think of Shakespeare's Three Witches/Weird Sisters.
So, this is pretty cool. Thankfully, this comic is easier to understand than Macbeth.
With that outta the way, let's move onto the plot.
The Plot
There really isn't much of a plot here as it's just the Young Six celebrating Nightmare Night in Ponyville. Including my favorite Silverstream being undecided of what costume to wear, so she wears them all. Which is cute and we really get a sense of how reference heavy, this issue is going to be with the first panel outside the school.
It continues onto the other page and we see things such as Big Mac dressed as Calvin from Calvin & Hobbes. The CMC dressed as The Three Stooges, Tia dressed as Elvis. And on the next page, we see Bon Bon dressed as Starfleet captain and Lyra dressed as Leia and a pony dressed as Optimus Prime. Oh, and there's a sign for Elm Street. There are quite a horror-related references in this issue.
The students are approached by a pony dressed as a hunchback and are quick to figure out that it's Headmare Twilight. Even though, Gallus calls her Principal Twilight. Which is odd as I don't recall that term ever being used during season 8. This pony is sending them to the Castle of the Two Sisters as it had been turned into a haunted house. They seem to be having a good time except for Smolder (the dragon) as she doesn't seem all that scared. That is until a boulder almost crashes and squishes them Indy style. Oh, and we see the Mane Six and they're all dressed as the Universal Monsters.
Okay, I gotta bring something up here. Fluttershy's involvement here feels a bit odd. Consider what we saw from Scare Master as the big lesson there was that, Fluttershy doesn't like Nightmare Night and that's okay. She'd rather enjoy a nice night in her cottage reading a book with her animal friends yet in that panel, she seems perfectly happy to be partaking in these events. Obviously, this takes place after that episode but still, it feels off. The best guess I can make as to why Flutters is taking part is because she cares about her students. Still odd, even more so when we find out that she put her animal friends in danger.
Y--you mean I wasn't supposed to bring my woodland creatures into the castle, either?
This is but one example of how the Mane Six's actions have turned what was supposed to be a Haunted House into a safety hazard for their students. There are other examples that we can look to such as Rarity putting draperies up in the castle and AJ lighting apple-scented candles. Also, Miss Rarity as The Phantom of The Opera is divine.
That is the best costume choice in this comic bar none. So, the Mane Six realize their mistake and head toward the castle fearing for the safety of their students. And yeah, things do go bad from to worse for the Young Six, after they step on a trap that Dashie activated. And they have to deal with swinging pendulums and an apple-scented fire breaking out. Along with being trapped in there with Fluttershy's animal friends. And it gets insane. But Yona, the young yak realizes that the Young Six can use fear as a motivator to help get them out from what they're facing. And it does seem to work and in a brave moment, we see the students face off against everything going on. Gallus comforts Ocellus, our young Changeling as she is the most scared but she thinks it through and realizes how she can get through this. And this leads to a rather odd Jurassic Park reference. Okay, is someone at IDW a fan of Universal or something. And furthermore, what's weird is that at least three of these references have or had comics that were published by IDW including JP.
And okay, I just got the T-Rex has Fluttershy's cutie mark. And I think that was supposed to be Ocellus but why Flutters' cutie mark?
Okay..... And okay, I wanna know who thought it was a good idea to put a fake idea of Chrissy in this haunted house? We have established that one of these students is a Changeling. Did no-one really stop think that could be a bit too traumatizing? No matter, our young students make it out and are greeted by the Mane Six and they are assured that they're okay. Oh, and hi Audrey II!
This comic isn't bad but I don't think it's a must-read and I get why they'd want to throw in so many references but after a while, it bogs down the story.
Characters
This is meant to be a fun story that doesn't focus too much on characters. So, in that regard, I don't have a lot to say here except that they were fun.
My Final Thoughts
This isn't bad. This could be fun and if you've already watched the Nightmare Night episodes, this is a nice bonus but both of those episodes are better. And you've also got other episodes that you could watch for this time of year that is a bit better like Bats! or 28 Pranks Later. It's not bad but the story and characters get bogged down.
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