My Little Pony: Best Gift Ever

My Little Pony: Best Gift Ever[1] (also known as My Little Pony: Best Gift Ever![2][3][4] and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: Best Gift Ever[5]) is a double-length Christmas-themed special based on the animated television series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, taking place in-between seasons eight and nine.[6] It premiered on October 27, 2018 on Discovery Family.

"My Little Pony: Best Gift Ever"
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode
Title card
Directed by
  • Denny Lu
  • Mike Myhre
  • Jim Miller (supervising director)
Written byMichael Vogel
Produced by
  • Devon Cody
  • Eliza Hart
  • Colleen McAllister
  • Stephen Davis (executive)
  • Nicole Dubuc (executive)
  • Kirsten Newlands (executive)
  • Sarah Wall (executive)
  • Meghan McCarthy (co-executive)
Featured music
Editing by
  • Greg Canning (animatic editor)
  • Tom Harris (online editor)
  • Nicole Dubuc (story editor)
Original air dateOctober 27, 2018 (2018-10-27)
Running time44 minutes

In this special, Twilight and her friends do a "Hearth's Warming Helper" to get just one Hearth's Warming present for another pony, to which they race all over Equestria to find the perfect gift.

Plot

With Hearth's Warming Eve approaching, Twilight and her friends decide to hold a "Hearth's Warming Helper" so that each of them only has to find a gift for one other friend.

For Pinkie Pie's gift, Twilight finds a recipe for a legendary magic pudding that is dangerous if prepared incorrectly. She becomes stressed trying to both prepare it and entertain her visiting relatives, Shining Armor and Cadence. Unbeknownst to them, their daughter, Flurry Heart, adds extra ingredients that cause the pudding to boil over.

Pinkie travels to Yakyakistan seeking advice for Twilight's gift. Prince Rutherford directs her north to the home of a trio of magical flying reindeer, Aurora, Bori and Alice. They claim to give her the "perfect gift" whose significance she will understand later.

Rarity orders a special hat as her gift to Applejack, but it is misdelivered to a nut farm. She travels there to collect it, but the resident farmer couple believes it to be a gift for their budding fashion designer son, Pistachio. Deducing the hat was not for him, he offers to return it, but Rarity insists he keep it so as to encourage his passion.

Spike swaps his recipient with Fluttershy so that he can give a gift to Rarity. He tries to craft a gift himself as a way to acknowledge her artistic creativity, but eventually falls asleep from exhaustion after several failed attempts.

Fluttershy, now tasked to find a gift for Rainbow Dash, travels with Applejack, who has Spike, to Rainbow Falls to shop for their gifts. There they find Flim and Flam swindling unwitting shoppers into buying cheaply-made dolls. They manage to expose their plot, but only after buying several of the dolls and using up their gift money.

Discord badgers Rainbow Dash into not halfheartedly buying a meaningless gift for Fluttershy. Upon his suggestion, Rainbow Dash catches a cute creature called a Winterchilla, unaware that it turns into a monstrous Winterzilla after dark.

The friends meet up at Twilight's castle to find it is flooded with the unstable pudding. As they attempt to flee, the Winterzilla blocks their exit. Pinkie, realizing that her present is the pudding's remaining ingredients, uses them to stabilize it. Fluttershy manages to calm and befriend the Winterchilla, which Discord reveals to have been his plan all along. The friends all apologize for the disappointing gifts they ended up giving each other. Using a homemade guitar, Spike sings a song as his gift to Rarity, hoping his lackluster gift did not ruin her holiday. Rarity is nonetheless appreciative and the group realizes that the best gift they can give to each other is their friendship.

Production

A song animatic from the special was shown at the 2018 My Little Pony 2018 San Diego Comic-Con International panel.

A promo for the special originally had a layering error involving the reindeer's flight over Twilight's castle. Supervising director Jim Miller confirmed on Twitter that this was fixed.[7] Additionally, Miller also counted this special as an episode.[8]

Music
Main article: List of songs in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic § My Little Pony: Best Gift Ever (2018)

Like the previous three Hearth's Warming episodes, the songs were composed by Daniel Ingram with lyric writing shared between Ingram and Michael Vogel.

  • "One More Day" – Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Spike and choir
  • "The True Gift of Gifting" – Spike (part 1) and Twilight Sparkle (part 2); backing vocals Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and choir (part 2)

Cast

Apple Bloom (Michelle Creber), Scootaloo (Madeleine Peters), Sweetie Belle (Claire Corlett), Big McIntosh, Sugar Belle, Granny Smith, Grand Pear, Igneous Rock Pie, Cloudy Quartz, and Parcel Post (Sam Vincent) sing during "One More Day", but are uncredited.

Release

The special premiered on October 27, 2018 on Discovery Family. The special is available on Netflix as of November 25, 2018 in the United States and Canada.[9]

Home media

The special was released on DVD on November 26, 2018 in the United Kingdom and distributed by Hasbro Trinity.[10]

Merchandise and other media

The holiday special is adapted into three storybooks from September to October 2018, the book A Perfectly Pinkie Present!,[4] Board Book[11] and A Present for Everypony.[2][3]

Animated shorts

The special was accompanied by three animated shorts.

No. Title Written by Original release date
1"Triple Pony Dare Ya"[12]Kim Beyer-JohnsonDecember 11, 2018 (2018-12-11)
Applejack and Rainbow Dash challenge each other to perform a series of crazy stunts.
2"The Great Escape Room"[13]Kim Beyer-JohnsonDecember 11, 2018 (2018-12-11)
Pinkie Pie sets up an escape room challenge for her friends.
3"Mystery Voice"[14]Kate LethDecember 11, 2018 (2018-12-11)
Classes at the School of Friendship are interrupted by a string of odd intercom announcements, each in a different pony's voice.

References
  1. Selbach, Sarah (2018-02-13). "MLP Core 2018 Product Descriptions US.pdf". Archived from the original on 2018-02-25. Retrieved 2018-02-16.
  2. "My Little Pony: Best Gift Ever: A Present for Everypony". Hachette Book Group. Retrieved 2018-04-04.
  3. "My Little Pony: Best Gift Ever: A Present for Everypony". Hachette Book Group. Retrieved 2018-04-04.
  4. "My Little Pony Best Gift Ever: A Perfectly Pinkie Present (My Little Pony)". Penguin Random House. Retrieved 2018-06-12.
  5. Jared Albert. "Discovery Family October 2018 Programming Highlights (Updated 9-25-18)" (PDF). Discovery Family. Retrieved 2018-09-26.
  6. Michael Vogel (2018-08-24). "mktoon on Twitter: "… "". Twitter. Retrieved 2018-09-04.
  7. Jim Miller [@TheBiggestJim] (2018-10-05). "We've already fixed it" (Tweet). Retrieved 2018-10-28 – via Twitter.
  8. Jim Miller [@TheBiggestJim] (2019-03-08). "Not if you count BGE as an episode!" (Tweet). Retrieved 2019-03-08 – via Twitter.
  9. Carly Mallenbaum (October 24, 2018). "New on Netflix in November: 'House of Cards, 'Doctor Strange', 'Narcos', Christmas films". USA Today. Retrieved October 24, 2018.
  10. "My Little Pony - The Best Gift Ever Christmas Special DVD: Amazon.co.uk: DVD & Blu-ray". Amazon. Retrieved 2018-09-20.
  11. "My Little Pony: Best Gift Ever: Board Book". Hachette Book Group. Retrieved 2018-02-20.
  12. Hasbro (2018-12-11). MLP: Friendship is Magic - Best Gift Ever! 🎁 'Triple Pony Dare Ya' Official Short. YouTube. Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  13. Hasbro (2018-12-11). MLP: Friendship is Magic - Best Gift Ever! 🎁 'The Great Escape Room' Official Short. YouTube. Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  14. Hasbro (2018-12-11). MLP: Friendship is Magic - Best Gift Ever! 🎁 'Mystery Voice' Official Short. YouTube. Retrieved 2018-12-11.
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