Fridge Horror / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic - Season 3

---

The Crystal Empire, Parts 1 & 2

• The prologue ends with Twilight suffering a minor freakout, which culminates with her uprooting the library. Let that sink in for a moment. Imagine living in a village with a perfectionist wizard whose equivalent of Tantrum Throwing can launch a building 50 feet into the air.
• In this sneak preview, the Crystal Pony Twi talks to is clearly having her memories or mind tampered with by the villain in a manner quite like the SOPS. All the other Crystal Ponies exhibit similar symptoms and lack of emotion. whoever the villain is, they are clearly using a SOPS-style system to enslave and control the entire population! And you thought having absolute control over soldiers was bad enough.
• Just what did King Sombra do one thousand years ago that was bad enough for Celestia and Luna to be more thorough disposing of the guy than Discord?
  • Well, he enslaved an entire country's worth of ponies for one.
  • Technically, they seemed to be less thorough. He didn't merit a shot of the Elements of Harmony, after all. He was also left to rot in Pony Canada instead of being placed on the front lawn where they could keep an eye on him.
  • We see the ponies in chains but nothing there that would warrant this kind of slave labour. However, the Empire is a source of great magic, good or evil. It is quite probable that Sombra chained his subjects with no other reason than to traumatize them and power up from their despair.
  • King Sombra blatantly calls the Crystal Ponies his slaves. It's clearly a slave line.
• Why are there no children in the Crystal Empire, though some are clearly shown in Celestia's "hologram"?
  • Considering the treatment the crystal ponies received under King Sombra, they may not have survived.
    • Jossed. We see some children who are too old to be newborns.
• The only thing that stopped King Sombra from getting into the Empire was Cadance's love magic. This means they must've arrived before Sombra did. Imagine if he'd reached it before they did.
• Did the Crystal Empire have any armed forces? The only 'soldier' we see during these episodes is Shining Armor, the captain of the Equestrian Royal Guard....
  • Any Crystal Empire soldiers would have been missing their memories, and working for Sombra when they had them. Not useful in this situation.
• Where the hell were all the colts and fillies? Did Sombra kill them all?
  • Either that or he pulled a Half-Life 2 and there wasn't any breeding allowed while he was in charge.
• There was ONE colt. Rainbow yelled at him for getting too close to the fake heart.
  • We clearly see some children in "Games Ponies Play." Though they could be made after they were freed from Sombra given the time that passed.
• There are no Pegasus or Unicorn ponies in the Crystal Empire. Sombra's already been shown to be a devious tactician with many layers to his plans regarding the Heart's safety. Magic and flight would have made reaching the Heart or escaping simpler, if not possible. Discord had the power to cause wings and horns to disappear and turn Pegasi/Unicorns into Earth Ponies...
  • What he did to Shining's horn might be part of his process for making earth ponies. Crystalizing Shining's horn, might've turned off his unicorn genes somehow. A similar process was probably used on wings.
  • Another possible explanation is that all crystal ponies are earth ponies, and pegasus/unicorn crystal ponies simply don't exist because it's not possible for them to be born that way.
• Spike fell from the top of the tower and King Sombra is heading straight for him. If you look closely, you see that Spike is falling right at the point of Sombra's crystal pillar. Given Sombra's character, it's most certainly possible this was intentional on his part. If not that, just what was he going to do to Spike if he'd reached him first?
  • It is worse than that. Sombra licks his lips and then opens his mouth wide...
• Twilight gets trapped in her worst fear by Sombra's spell. That alone is horrible, but then you remember what kind of psycho King Sombra is. If that's the kind of magic he's capable of, just imagine what the poor Crystal Ponies were put through under his reign.
• While Twilight is trapped in her worst fear by King Sombra's spell, she sees a stained glass window depicting herself being hurled into a pit of flames engulfing crystal spikes. Remember that this was Sombra's spell and there's no reason Twilight herself would imagine such a thing. Given what we're told about Sombra, it's quite probably he actually intended to do that to her!
• The area around the Crystal kingdom is a frozen wasteland. The Crystal kingdom itself is not frozen, and is protected by Cadance's love spell. The Hearth's Warming Eve episode gave us Windigos, a creature that creates cold weather and is repelled by love. Maybe Sombra isn't the only thing the shield is keeping out...
• King Sombra, unlike other villains, was destroyed, instead of being sealed away. Now think about this; it took the love of an ENTIRE EMPIRE to completely obliterate him. Discord and Luna were defeated by the Elements of Harmony, and Chrysalis was blown away by Cadance and Shining Armor. Now instead of that, what would happen if that much love was used against them? Hm...
  • It didn't necessarily take that much love to beat him, that was simply the amount of love that was used. Just because someone is taken out with a cruise missile doesn't necessarily mean only a cruise missile would do.
  • My point exactly. If Discord, Chrysalis or Nightmare Moon were filled with so much love, would they simply be annihilated?
    • Actually, King Sombra was pure evil, and the Elements of Harmony might have done the same to him. With Nightmare Moon, the Crystal Heart might have released Luna unharmed. Discord is unclear but his redemption shows he is not pure evil. It likely would have destroyed Chrysalis, though, although she was nearly as evil as Sombra
    • If it didn't destroy Chrysalis, isn't there a risk that it would instead make her vastly more powerful?
• Sombra was imprisoned a thousand years ago. Luna became Nightmare Moon and was sealed away in the moon a thousand years ago. Word of God says Luna was corrupted by dark magic when she became Nightmare Moon. How do we know Sombra didn't infect her with some of his power as a final "screw you" before he was sealed away? Considering we don't know exactly when Luna became Nightmare Moon, it could've been some time after Sombra was defeated, and the "infection" had time to grow and consume her!
  • A similar but different theory: It was DISCORD'S magic that corrupted Luna. Discord's corruption takes fears/worries of the mane six and amplifies them. Sombra shows no ability to corrupt ponies in that way. It could be that Luna always was envious of Celestia's day and a bit of residual magic from Discord caught hold. Also, consider how some of the mane six reacted upon being freed from Discord's power. It's very similar, if not identical, to Luna's instantaneous guilt and apologies upon reverting to her original form.
• More of a theory but if you notice,Twilight's eyes were fairly like Sombra's when she was under his spell.So what if Sombra is seeing his nightmare constantly? Maybe his worst fear is that the empire's current ruler becomes a tyrant and he over threw them thinking he was doing a good deed? What if he also saw his slaves as happy subjects under his rule and the royal sisters were trying to make the empire corrupted while in reality,he was the monster enslaving the kingdom?
• When Sombra was defeated, his body was shattered like crystal, and blasted away. But here's something to consider: is that normal, shattering like crystal? If Sombra were a crystal pony, we could see that happening, but Sombra was a unicorn. A unicorn who was very recently a living shadow. What if Sombra didn't "die" at the end, but was just forced to revert into his living shadow form (he may very well have not been fully restored to his original form at the time of his defeat). While in that form, he demonstrated the ability to control separated pieces of himself back together, and could even work magic through those pieces. What if Sombra isn't dead, but just pulling himself back together?
  • Add the fact that Sombra's horn survived his defeat, this builds up to be one of the scariest things about him. Even the trading card agrees with me! [1]
  • Wordof God has stated that Sombra is dead. Really totally dead. [2]
    • Hang on. Pony of Shadows? Glowing green eyes? I can't be the only one seeing this parallel. And if it's made of scraps of the Nightmare, perhaps it saw other bits it liked and added some fragments of Sombra...
• Spike's worst fear (being sent away by Twilight) when facing the dark door invokes some of this. Keep in mind that Spike, despite his precocious personality, is still a young child, and he knows little next to nothing of his origins or species (sans a brief encounter with some cruel teenage dragons who might or might not be representative for the species as a whole). This places his actions during "Owl's Well That Ends Well" in a much harsher light. Living with Twilight (who is also the closest thing he has to a Parental Substitute in his life) is literally the only life he knows and all he's got. From his perspective, he has nowhere to turn if he were to be sent away except for his own kind which he has taken a dislike to.

Too Many Pinkie Pies

• The solution of the Episode: The Pinkies showed signs of intelligence and sentience, even if the had very simplified character traits. We have no indication that they existed before Pinkie created them and we have no indication that they continued to exist after they were send back. Did Twilight just casually kill a number of innocent ponies?
  • The first clone zapped was clearly reduced to energy and sent back to the pond, there is no reason the spell would have different effects on the others.
    • Reducing them to energy is still destroying their sentience, so unless there's a sort of other world where manifested clones go beyond the Mirror Pool, well...
    • Wonder what happens to the real pony if she gets zapped?
    • That's just the thing - the spell works on real people just as well as clones, apparently. So let's say I'm a serial-killer Unicorn and I invent a spell that kills my victim and then instantly transports the body to the bottom of a nearby lake. How, precisely, was Twilight's clone-destroying spell any different from this, except for the choice of lake?
    • Not unless we assume the lake is some sort of conscious entity and the clones were simply re-assimilated.
    • Even re-assimilation into a sentient entity is a fairly disturbing Borg-level outcome. It's ultimately hard to see a permanent and irreversible loss of body, self, and individuality as anything other than Killed Off for Real or A Fate Worse Than Death.
    • Worse still is that Twilight and her friends never asked these questions or had this debate. They quickly assumed this was the best course of action and quickly implemented it in spite of it being irreversible, without giving even an afterthought to whether or not such a thing was murder.
• The book Twilight finds talking about the mirror pool says that she can accidentally send back the real Pinkie. Why would the book even have that information unless it's actually happened? And if so, what happened to them afterwards?
• This episode shows that unicorn horns can overheat from intense spell casting. How many ponies have set their own heads on fire? Has Twilight done that?
  • Yes.
• So, what if an evil character like Discord discovered the pond? Especially since, if we assume that the personalities of anypony who gets cloned get more exaggerated, (like how the Pinkie clones seemed to be even more loopy than the real Pinkie) would the Discord clones be even more twisted and depraved?
  • That would be a pretty cool plot for a future episode.
  • "More twisted and depraved"? Not necessarily. Perhaps the pond doesn't create a clone with exaggerated qualities, but rather ones with the same essential nature as the original. The difference is that the clones have none of the original's experience. Pinkie Pie, for all her zaniness, still had to develop the skills and self-control necessary to live in polite pony society. This is why she doesn't go around doing anything but benign if she can help it. The clones emerged fully formed from the pond, complete with all of the original's randomness, but without her learned heed for others that checks Pinkie Pie's behavior (for what it's worth). They didn't know what they were doing. This of course magnifies the Fridge Horror in that Twilight enacted a holocaust against not just sentient beings, but sentient NEWBORNS. As for Discord, whether or not his clones would be more vile would hinge on whether his evil is inherent as a chaos being, or was acquired at some point in his past. If the former, they most certainly be more evil because they'd lack even the barest of Discord's self control, whatever that may be. If the latter, the clones might be random but benign, and lay the groundwork for a "good" Discord.
• We're sure that Twilight got the right one, right?
  • The other Pinkies were essentially reflections of the original. They had a less complex personality and seemingly no memory of Pinkies from before they were created (Even messing up the names of the Mane Six, something the real Pinkie would never do.) Unless Pinkie Pie is shown to have amnesia in later episodes, then we can be certain that she got the right one. Simple solution: Ask her how Equestria was made!
• An army of Pinkie Pies sound great, right? What if they were smart enough to know that everyone in town loathes them for being so manic and uncontrollable? What if they get depressed from not being wanted, each one getting more and more anti-social, paranoid and delusional? Oh boy...
  • This gets less horrifying when one remembers that the depressed Pinkie was less dangerous than the normal Pinkie. Waiting for them all to get depressed actually would have made it easier to round them up.
    • Remember, this may not ever happen if the Pinkie Pies simply hang out with each other constantly. Pinkie didn't have an army of clones to do whatever she wanted in A Party of One.
    • However, there is still the issue if they get all get angry. They all showed that they are as much reality warpers as much as the original if not even more, and if they released their anger, there would be no stopping them.
• The one Pinkie clone sprouting fingers gets more disturbing when you remember that horse hoofs are basically one giant nail. So imagine fingers growing out of your fingernails...
  • You mean like this?
• From this episode on, no matter what happens, for the entire run of the show, there will be a quiet, nagging suspicion in the back of your mind that Pinkie Pie is no longer the real Pinkie Pie.
• Here's a particularly disturbing one: Imagine a bunch of clones running around out there, ruining your reputation with one-dimensional, shallow, idiotic behavior. They're running around like a bunch of two-year-olds on a non-stop sugar rush, making everyone miserable with their annoying behavior, and no one can tell the difference between them and the real you. Not even your best friends. Worse, despite being an outgoing friendly pony who is supposed to be friends with every pony in Ponyville, no one actually really knows Pinkie Pie well enough to tell the difference between her and a bunch of hyperactive amoral clones. And the only way they can get rid of the clones is by using a spell that risks sending her to the same place, and no one raises any serious complaints about the risks. Now, read all of that again, and ask yourself this: Does Pinkie Pie have any real friends in Ponyville?
  • Yes she does. In defense of the mane cast, Pinkie Pie herself wasn’t sure she was the real Pinkie. There’s also a precedent in the series for Pinkie not taking dire situations seriously. In the season 2 finale when she was fighting an army of changelings bent on overthrowing Celestia’s government and basically raping the entire population for food, Pinkie eagerly jumped up and down saying “Do me! Do me!”. In the season 2 premier, she seriously considered not opposing Discord so that she could have chocolate rain. Based on her past behaviour, it wasn’t inconceivable that Pinkie Pie would be happily bouncing around with her clone army, innocently oblivious to the havoc they were causing, and it doesn’t speak ill of her friends that they would think that. Pinkie Pie is by her nature erratic and unpredictable, thus even her best friends could not be expected to predict how Pinkie Pie would react to such an unusual and confusing situation, which is why Twilight didn’t automatically assume the one Pinkie who was acting odd was the real one. Pinkie is also a very empathetic and forgiving soul, and would not hold her friend’s inability to differentiate her from her clones against them (again, especially since she herself wasn’t even sure who she was, and even explicitly stated that she couldn’t expect her friends to tell her apart). Granted, the plot is a bit of an idiot ball on Pinkie’s part, since she knows the clones don’t share her personal memories and could therefore prove who she was with a simple personal trivia contest (This is also how we know for sure that the real Pinkie wasn’t banished to the mirror pool). One would also think that Twilight would have wanted to confirm the real Pinkie’s identity before she started zapping them back to the mirror pool (based on how the spell was depicted in the episode, I think she was simply sending the clones back to where they came from, not killing them). On this page, there are tropers who object to Twilight’s test, since if the real Pinkie became distracted even once she would have failed. First of all, it was the real Pinkie herself who proposed the test (not specificially the watching paint dry part, but doing something boring). She proposed and accepted the terms "winner stays, losers go back to the pond". More importantly, remember that at the end of the test Twilight said “I knew you’d be up to the challenge,” . I think that speaks volumes about what her friends really think of her. They may not always understand her, or be able to tell her apart from forty other physically identical and behaviourally similar (if flanderized) clones, but they know that there is nothing that she wouldn’t do for her friends. An army of Dragons could have invaded Ponyville, and Pinkie Pie wouldn’t have looked away from that wall. After all, Pinkie’s special talent is making her friends happy, and her friends wouldn’t have been very happy if they accidentally sent her to the mirror pool. The magic of friendship ensured that only the real Pinkie could pass the test, and Twilight knew that.
    • In response to the "killing them" argument, perhaps they made it seem less like that since killing them outright might seem a lot darker than the last death we saw, only those who give enough thought to it would realize Twilight killed them.
• Yes, Studio B did everything to reassure the viewers that the Pinkie Pie that remains is the real one, but what if she isn't and Twilight actually zapped the real one?
  • Does Twilight now have the ability to banish anyone to the Mirror Pool? Or does it (hopefully) only work on ponies that have used the pool?
    • And what if it wasn't just banishment? What if Twilight killed them? For all we know, the clones didn't exist before they were pulled out of the Mirror Pool, and may have been born from pure magical energy with no consciousness before....
    • Word of God states that "Magic came out, magic went back in", essentially confirming that the sentient Pinkies were, in fact destroyed when they were absorbed into the pool. In essence, that makes this episode and the nature of the Mirror Pool more-or-less "The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People", with ponies.
  • It doesn't say much for Pinkie's self-esteem that she's so quick to doubt whether she's her real self.
    • Or her mental state in general. For all her outward cheeriness, Pinkamina seems rather fragile and insecure.
  • If those animals were turned into oranges, how long will they live?
    • Twilight probably changed them back after the episode.
  • What if somepony less nice than Pinkie discovered the Mirror Pool in the past, like Discord or Sombra?
    • Considering who and what Discord is, he probably created it. And if he created it...
  • The first Pinkie Pie clone expressed sadness, reason, and anxiety. The last clone to vanish seemed nervous of something right before she was distracted. The others, typically considered shallow clones of Pinkie, could at the very least learn and experience some emotions. That makes Twilight killing them off all the more terrifying.
    • General fanon is that the last Pinkie Pie to go was actually the first clone created, thus her unusual emotional range compared to the others. (It's also better dramatically.) This counts down a lot on the horror factor, since it means all of the other clones are still blanks.
  • There are interpretations that come from the fact that since "Alpha!Pinkie" actually entered the pool, the whole episode was happening in a mirror version of Ponyville, and by "zapping" the last, REAL Pinkie Pie, everything went back to how it should be. The Flanderization is the effect of magic pond.
• What if the problems with the Pinkie Clones wasn't that they were one-dimensional reflections of Pinkie Pie, but rather that each of them Really Was Born Yesterday. As obnoxious and annoying as they were, they didn't have a lifetime of socialization to fall back on, nor were they given the chance.
• Consider what Pinkie Pie had to go through. When all the Pinkies are rounded up to take the test, Twilight simply states that the one who passes "gets to stay" (alive). The real Pinkie has to sit perfectly still and remain quiet while Twilight slaughters the unattentive duplicates, sometimes just for looking at another duplicate. Now, if Pinkie would look away for just a moment (because a duplicate bumps into her by accident, maybe?), she would be disintegrated by Twilight, die and never see her friends again. Basically, she has to suppress her entire personality if she wants to stay alive; even if she manages to do that, she might still die because some random duplicate next to her decides to make a face "crazier than THIS!". Not even Celestia's Royal guards have this much self control. Pinkie has to rely on the small amount of self restraint she has to remain alive during a few hours of crazy duplicates being killed off by an awfully cheery Twilight. How is this not severe psychological torture? Oh, and cue Spike enjoying all this with his trademark bag o' popcorn.
  • What's more horrifying is how quickly Twilight decided to do that test. All she knows about the duplicates comes from a book that's who knows how old. Twilight used extensive scientific methods when she tried to prevent a future disaster, why doesn't she try to determine the real Pinkie with science? Scientifically, it's quite likely that the mirror pool doesn't go as far as duplicating the exact (very complex) DNA. It might even be as simple as looking at their hair under a microscope. With a bit of investigation she'd know that Pinkie only taught them three names (Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie), so a quick pop quiz on the names of the ponies could fix the problem too. But no, Twilight just jumps to psychological trauma to solve the problem. Since it's also reasonable to assume Twilight has read at least one book on pony psychology (if anypony has, it's her), we could say Twilight is subjecting a pony she knows to be unstable to a experience she knows is traumatizing. Smiling all the while.
• What is Twilight actually testing? After all, a two-second quiz ("Name your Element of Harmony. Name the dragonequus imprisoned in the statue. Name the zebra who lives in Everfree Forest.") could probably eliminate 95% of the fake Pinkies. Doesn't the test actually used look like it's actually designed to find the least disruptive and most tractable Pinkie? If so, we can only hope that Twilight was doing it unconsciously, not deliberately ...
  • And yeah, seriously, the test is basically "which of you cracks last under torture"...
  • Most of this folder is about Twilight possibly killing sentient clones and/or the real Pinkie with complaints about how the solution was handled. Thing is, Twilight didn't know the clones didn't have Pinkie's memories (they weren't really sitting still long enough to have a conversation) and Pinkie herself suggested the test. Twilight was kinda desperate at that point so she may not have thought to try something more involved that could possibly take longer. (Give each Pinkie a private trivia quiz? Good luck holding them all in one place for that to go smoothly.) The way I see it, each Pinkie clone was effectively a photocopy of a 3-dimensional object. And most of them were photocopies of photocopies. They were degraded images. They had no substance. They were magical constructs programmed to act a certain way. A computer program can express emotions if programmed to and given the proper stimuli. That doesn't make it sentient.
  • It was Pinkie (the presumably-real one) who suggested the test in the first place. Ponder the implications of that.
• The fact that Pinkie Pie tends to suffer under Flanderization after this episode makes any and all ideas that Twilight accidentally zapped the real Pinkie Pie more likely than ever.
• The fact that the book is discovered in a secret compartment in a random book-case is a little troublesome. This implies that it's too dangerous to lend out, but at the same time, too important to destroy... Hmmm...
• Think about the clones from Twilight's perspective. The whole town has basically been overrun by a horde of single-minded things that due to magic look and sound just like one of your friends. Does this remind you of anything? Maybe the things that nearly killed you and everpony you care about at your brother's wedding? With that in mind, is it any surprise that Twilight was willing to take such drastic measures to get rid of them and get the real Pinkie Pie back?

One Bad Apple

• Given how Babs is a walking embodiment of a bullied girl's tendency to become a bully to avoid it, one wonders just how bad Babs got it that her standard for bullying is severely traumatizing the CMC, and how surprised she was when they created a trapped cart just to get back at her. A hint; unlike the CMC, Babs actually covers her flank and looks like she's on the verge of tears when the CMC bring it up.
• Babs Seed's bullying is more physical compared to Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon's verbal taunting. Then it's revealed that Babs is a victim of bullying. Which makes you wonder how bad her bullying was compared to the CMC. Once we actually see Manehattan, it only substantiates that what she got could have been worse then anything seen in Ponyville.
• Babs' tail is short compared even to other fillies's tails. There are some unfortunate implications of tail abuse being part of her bullying back in Manehatten.
  • Her mane is short too. It might just be a style - sort of a tomboy look, maybe?
    • Two counterpoints: Earth Ponies have very prehensile tails, and Scootaloo and many other short-maned ponies have full-length tails. In fact, Babs so far is the only pony seen with a docked tail.
    • Actually Big Mac has a docked tail. Babs is the only foal with a docked tail...And I just realized that makes this theory WORSE!
    • It's probably a pretty safe bet that their tails aren't actually docked. It's much more likely that the hair is just cut short.
    • Didn't Rarity cut off most of her tail in the second half of the pilot without much problem?
    • Yes, but Rarity has Telekinesis and her tail does not seem to have as much prehensility as an Earth Pony's.
    • Her tail has enough prehensility to hold the cake box in Party of One. Also, as of Bats!, Fluttershy's tail is shown to be very prehensile
  • All foals are supposed to have short tails. Google "foals" and look in the images to see examples.
• Being picked on for having no cutie mark may not have been all Babs was bullied for: her design is slightly chubbier then the average filly, so it's entirely possible she was bullied for being a 'fat-flank' too.
• Assuming that the CMC knew the parade route (Being an annual event, it would be the same most years) they'd know when and where the Trap would go off, and would send Babs over The cliff....I'm pretty sure the CMCs planned to straight up MURDER Babs.
  • The three of them came out of the trap without even being bruised. It takes more than that to hurt a pony.
    • There are a lot of ways the plan could have gone VERY wrong. Like what if Babs had gotten stuck underwater and help was slow...
    • And pigs will eat anything that falls in, and while Fluttershy could use The Stare, we don't know if it has an expiration date...

Magic Duel

• Trixie spent the entire episode doing all sorts of terrible things under the influence of the Alicorn Amulet. We don't know how long she wore it, but it IS possible to see her gradually become worse and worse as the episode progresses. If it did that to HER, who's default magic is average (though impressive for her special talent), imagine what would happen if someone TRULY evil got their hooves on the thing? Or if someone like Twilight had.
• Spells exist with the explicit purpose of making ponies old. Why on earth would you need a spell that does that?
  • It was invented by an underage unicorn who wanted to be grown-up for a bit?
  • The same spell made one pony old and the other young, and Twilight later tries to use it to make a flower un-bloom. It can do more than one thing.
    • It would actually come handy if the Mane Six ever need Spike's sheer power as an adult dragon; age him to adulthood to battle whatever monster or danger they're facing, then de-age him back to normal once the danger is over.
  • We see Twilight trying to de-age a plant, so the spell might work on non-ponies as much as normal ponies. Using it to grow a plant from seed to fully mature would be quite useful.
  • Its obvious use is as an Immortality spell.
• An ordinary unicorn who Level Grinds in Badass and enslaves a population of ponies. Sound familiar? Did King Sombra have a similar Start of Darkness? Furthermore, Trixie was growing stronger and worse by the hour—it can't have been very long, as Pinkie still had the strength to use Hammerspace and to break the fourth wall. If something had gone wrong with Twilight's rematch, and the Element bearers were incapacitated or even Killed Off for Real, would even Celestia and Luna have even been able to stop Queen Trixie?
  • Trixie with the amulet maxed out at well below King Sombra's demonstrated power level. Questions of how evil she would have gotten aside, she was only a single magician, slightly more powerful than Twilight. Given King Sombra's usage of corrupted crystals for everything, it is reasonable to assume that he was using the magical properties Crystal Empire's crystals to increase his own powers, similarly to her. Maybe the amulet was made from experiments with his corrupted crystals?
    • Trixie wasn't slightly more powerful than Twilight with the amulet, she was vastly more powerful. As Twilight said, age spells are something only the most powerful unicorns can do. Twilight herself is powerful, but her magic hasn't gotten her into the history books yet. We know that there are several famous unicorn magicians and it's likely that Starswirl the Bearded was far more powerful than Twilight when he got famous.
    • While Twilight couldn't use the age modification magic yet, she is still very inexperienced, and she's still just starting her studies. Her powers are likely to grow vastly in the future, while Trixie's actions implied that she'd hit her peak.
• Sweet Sombra, the Alicorn Amulet is absolutely shrouded with this. Who made it? Who imbued it with such power? And as pointed out by another Troper, is there a much darker and eviller alicorn out there? The possibilities are endless...
  • Perhaps it was used by a mysterious, ancient tribe in its hexing rituals?
• The old definition of alicorn refers to the material in which unicorn horns are composed of. So it's possible that the amulet was named that because it was literally forged out of severed unicorn horns.
  • As of "Magical Mystery Cure", "alicorn" in the context of this show specifically refers to a Winged Unicorn. (This, of course, does not rule out the possibility of it being made of alicorn horns...)
• Trixie goes from getting payback on Twilight to enslaving the entire town to finally wanting to conquer Equestria due to the Alicorn Amulet gradually corrupting her. On top of this, after being freed from it, she's shown to be relatively nice. Now, keep in mind the entire episode lasted a single day, two tops. In that time it turned a reasonably bitter, somewhat decent pony into a borderline monster. It's quite possible that, at the speed it was corrupting her, her original intention for getting it and coming to Ponyville weren't remotely close to what she actually did when she arrived.
  • This raises two other bits of Fridge Horror. What would Trixie have ended up becoming if the Amulet hadn't been removed? In the entire episode she still doesn't seriously hurt anyone, but how long would that have lasted at the rate it was corrupting her? The other bit is what would've happened if someone who was already genuinely evil had gotten their hooves on it? Like say King Sombra for instance.
    • Or alternative Fridge Horror - what if King Sombra used to be decent, and then he got hold of something similar to the amulet?
• Trixie removing Pinkie's mouth and nose. For the whole episode. The Rule of Funny alone saves Pinkie Pie from suffocating to death!
  • Pinkie Pie lives by Rule of Funny. I think she would have been alright.
• Even assuming that the amulet's magic still allowed Pinkie to breathe, Pinkie's big concern was that she was unable to eat. What was to keep her from starving to death if Trixie's reign took place over a longer period of time?
• The existence of the Alicorn Amulet in general, considering what it turned Trixie into.
  • And it was never properly disposed of, either, meaning the threat it represents is still very, very real.
• Trixie's motivations gradually got worse and worse as the episode drew on and the Amulet corrupted her mind further. She went from getting payback to enslaving the town to finally deciding to conquer Equestria. Now remember the entire episode took place in the course of a day. If it corrupted her that quickly, just what would it have done to her if it hadn't been removed? Heck, it's entirely possible her original intention for buying the Amulet and coming to Ponyville was completely different than what it was when she got there judging by how fast she was being corrupted!
  • The amulet was quite clearly causing Trixie to lose her mind throughout the episode. Her mistrust of wheels was fairly benign, but the implication that she was getting steadily worse was very present. Given the amount of power that she was able to call upon with the amulet, it seems like a very real possibility that she was eventually going to lose control and kill herself and everything in the immediate vicinity, (i.e. Ponyville).
• Snips and Snails were never turned back. Considering that only the most powerful ponies can cast these spells, they only have three hopes: the effect is temporary, it's easier to use a Dispel Magic-type spell to counter the Age spell than it is to use the Age spell again, or they had Celestia/Luna do it offscreen.
• Trixie's spell on Rainbow Dash that was "Supposed to make you writhe in agony". In other words, there are spells for torture in the world of ponies. Talk about a Crapsaccharine World.
  • Either that or Evil!Trixie had gotten corrupted to the point she was creating them.
  • Tasers and pepper spray both have the effect of making their targets writhe in agony, but they're (in theory) used as an alternative to killing people. It's possible that spell was invented by the Royal Guard as a safer way to subdue ponies who go crazy.
  • Both have also been cited by human rights groups as having been twisted into forms of torture before, it's really solely the intent that separates legitimate use and abuse. The point stands that there are spell whose sole purpose is causing extreme pain, and there really isn't any reason for such to exist that doesn't automatically make the entire setting seem a fair bit darker.
  • Well, for all the cute ponies and often cheerfully cartoonish art style, the setting itself has never been presented as all that much of a Sugar Bowl. And the spell may not initially have been invented for use on ponies at all — it's not like potentially dangerous monsters were exactly in short supply within easy walking distance of for example Ponyville even in modern times...
• The Alicorn Amulet is said by the salespony to be one of the most powerful artifacts in the world (paraphrasing). Here's the key part: one of. That means there are other artifacts that have that kind of power, and some might even be MORE powerful.
  • Like, say, the god-binding/banishing/purifying Elements of Harmony? Or the Empire-saving Crystal Heart? Just because they're more powerful doesn't mean they're inherently dangerous or evil.
• After the Alicorn Amulet is removed, evil!Trixie doesn't immediately mellow out. She stays evil!Trixie for a bit. This means at least some of the Amulet's corruption was lingering even after it was removed.

Sleepless in Ponyville

• As usual, Scootaloo was only saved from that waterfall due to sheer connivence of Rainbow Dash waking up and noticing she was gone. And as usual, what would've happened had Rainbow Dash not woken up?
  • This is a bit of a leap, but it seems to be implied that Luna was monitoring the situation in the waking world as well. Given how soundly Dash was seen to be sleeping, it may have even been Luna's intervention that woke her up.
• Luna can enter a pony's dreams. Now think of the ways somepony could abuse that power.
  • It's clearly the reason behind her Fallen Princess title of Nightmare Moon.
    • To elaborate on one potential double meaning of the name Nightmare Moon: since Nightmare Moon is a twisted Mad God version of Princess Luna, do you think, perhaps, that one of Nightmare Moon's powers was to plant in ponies' minds nightmares so terrifying that they would literally wake on the spot shrieking, so that they would not miss a single moment of Nightmare Moon's perpetual night? So, in addition to food shortages due to lack of sunlight, we're also looking at sleep deprivation and all the wonderful things that that brings.
  • Someone has.

Wonderbolt Academy

• How much farther would Lightning Dust have gone if she hadn't almost killed Rainbow Dash's friends?
• Spitfire was encouraging Lightning Dust. All of those tiny little signs that she was dangerously reckless? Spitfire, who's supposed to be monitoring the situation, either didn't see them or (as is more likely) saw them but didn't say anything, preferring to let her learn her own lessons. But the point is that she rewarded recklessness and disregard for the rules—even right in the beginning, when Lightning's blatantly disrespectful response to Spitfire's Drill Sergeant Nasty routine was rewarded with an immediate opportunity to show off. Lightning had every reason to believe she was doing nothing wrong.
• Until Rainbow told her about it, Spitfire didn't even realize that a pair of inexperienced cadets had summoned an uncontrollable tornado right outside her window and nearly killed five civilians. What The Hell, Spitfire?
• A minor one, perhaps, but still: It's a damn good thing Spitfire managed to catch Rainbow Dash before she left for good. If Spitfire had been just a few minutes slower in figuring out what had happened and tracking down her wayward cadet, Rainbow Dash might very well have spent the rest of her life falsely disillusioned, believing that her childhood heroes put more value on looking cool than on the lives of innocents. And nothing could be further from the truth.
  • Spitfire knows Rainbow Dash lives in Ponyville and how to reach her by mail. It would have been fine.
    • You sure you wanna put that kind of faith in Ponyville's mail service.
  • She could also simply go there personally if it was so much of an issue to make sure Dash had got the message, Spitfire is one of the Wonderbolts, which means she is one of the fastest and most skilled flyers in Equestria, a quick trip to Ponyville wouldn't take her long.
• Let's think this for a moment... When Dash and Dust created the tornado that cleared the skies, Twilight and her friends were almost crushed. Now, what if Dashie was too late? She would have been the only Element of Harmony that Equestria had, and the Elements are seemingly the only protection Equestria has! Villains such as Discord or Queen Chrysalis would have had even more of a cakewalk conquering Equestria than they originally did!

Just For Sidekicks

• Spike's greed was starting to kick in again. Would if he had gone through another growth spurt...but this time with the pets around?
  • Eh, probably not. He pretty much seemed concerned with protecting his horde this time. At least until he was going to eat it. His tiny, tiny horde of like, six gems. Maybe he's just showing signs of getting older?
• During the photo montage of Spike returning Peewee in the Cold Open, you'll notice that one of the parent phoenixes looks pretty angry.
  • He was probably still steamed about the being hit by a rock the last time he and Spike met.
• What happened with Peewee that Spike had to return him?
  • He was probably just returning him to his original home, something that he will never get to experience himself.
• Scootaloo was afraid she had decapitated Tank. That would've been bad enough if she did, also Tank is Rainbow Dash's pet. We all know how much Scootaloo idolizes Rainbow Dash and it would be pretty bad if she accidentally killed her pet. Even worse, Rainbow Dash took Scootaloo under her wing a few episodes ago and Rainbow Dash could feel a sense of betrayal. Even worse than that, we all saw how affectionate Rainbow Dash and Tank were earlier in the episode (the mere fact she did show affection is pretty serious for Rainbow Dash) so someone killing Tank (even if by accident) you don't wanna imagine how mad she'd be. Even worse, in Ponyville Confidential, Rainbow Dash unleashed a torrential downpour Scootaloo and her friends for ruining her reputation so she already has a history of hurting Rainbow Dash. Basically, if Scootaloo had accidentally killed Tank, she would be left permanently emotionally scarred.
  • Even if Rainbow Dash did forgiver her, accidentally killing something like that would be emotionally scarring.
  • It gets worse when you watch Tanks for the Memories, and see that Rainbow Dash is willing to sabotage a factory to prevent her from losing Tank. What would have happened had Tank actually died?
• Spike, a baby dragon, has a Growling Gut loud enough to be heard throughout an entire train car. Just think how powerful it will be when he gets older.

Apple Family Reunion

• We don't see Applejack's parents being mentioned, and the whole family was supposed to have made it. Where are they, or are they really dead?
  • Rule of Symbolism: At two major scenes (Applejack at the window, before she tucks in Applebloom, and at the very end of the episode, right after Applejack talks about how everypony showed up for the reunion), a matched pair of shooting stars can be seen. If Lauren's original intended backstory was meant to be, then these shooting stars are her parents.
    • Sibsy confirms the shooting stars were meant to be a reference to her parents.
  • Alternatively, they could have abandoned them.
    • Actually, Faust also came up with an alternate back story, that they were traveling sales-ponies, and traveled all around the world. But were too busy to take care of their kids. So it could be that sadly, their parents are more interested in their work, and too busy to stop by to see their kids, and see all the other Apples, at the reunions. So it's a possibility that their too busy to see their family again. For those interested, both back stories appear in this FAQ.
  • That Applejack's parents didn't even rate a brief mention during the whole early RSVP scene rather suggests that nopony thought to invite them or otherwise expected them to show up — otherwise one should think something would have been made of the fact that they of all ponies didn't reply or couldn't come. There aren't all that many non-depressing reasons for why that might be the case...
    • Depressing reason confirmed - Sibsy has confirmed that they are indeed dead.

Spike at your Service

• There's a massive amount of Fridge Horror regarding Timberwolves and how they operate. There are several refferences to being carnivorous, but then you realise they're just wood and plant growth magically animated. Why would they even need to eat? In fact, it's likely they don't even have stomachs or digestive fluids at all. Which means they must kill either simply because they enjoy it, or because something else is magically commanding them to. Both options don't really bear thinking about.
  • The only not disturbing option is that Timberwolves are viciously territorial, and them "eating" is little more than a means to freak out whatever they're trying to scare away, and no one's willing to get close enough to find out they're not actually digesting their victims.
  • Or maybe the wolves consume the life force of their victims, but only after subduing them in the conventional hunter's way.
• There's also the fact they can reform themselves when shattered, endlessly. Who's to say that giant one won't just come back, or become a bunch of smaller ones, right outside Ponyville... (Unless, like vampires, there's a way to dispose of the remains that ensures they won't come back)
  • Thankfully, the assorted monsters of the Everfree Forest seem content to stay there unless provoked first; monster attacks seem rare enough that something like an Ursa Minor ambling into Ponyville is genuine cause for panic rather than a case of "ho hum, third critter this month...". If the timber wolves ever change their minds about that and their regeneration ability turns out not to be tied to the forest itself after all on top of that, now...
• Another point of Fridge Horror concerning timberwolves - aside from the plan to fool Spike, the only ponies tat we knew to have had contact with timberwolves previously is the Apple family. As of last episode, we know that Applejack's parents are dead, but we don't know how they died... what if they were killed by timberwolves?
  • Isn't this more of a WMG? There is nothing connecting timberwolves to Applejack's parents other than that a long time ago, members of the Apple family encountered them. A creature that lives in the giant forest right next to Ponyville.
• Before realizing that the Timberwolves can regenerate after getting destroyed, it actually seems that Applejack had killed them ON SCREEN. And it seems Applejack, before this episode, didn't know that these creatures have that power, as she's quite surprised when they do it after destroying them the second time. In other words, Applejack is more than ready to actually kill anyone threatening her friends without a second thought. You still have any doubts of why she's the Team Mom ? E-Nope.
• More of a fridge Tear Jerker, but in this episode, Spike tells Twilight that he's going to go work for Applejack forever, and that she doesn't need him anymore. He's quite upset when he hears her say "Okay", even though it turns out she was busy reading and not paying attention to him. Now, what was Spike's worst nightmare again?

Keep Calm and Flutter On

• Apparently, Twilight had multiple books containing (or multiple versions) a 'reform' spell. Does anyone else think it's kind of strange that Twilight was willing to essentially enslave/manipulate Discord just so that she doesn't disappoint Celestia?
  • To be fair, Twilight was only using it as a back-up plan in case Discord didn't reform. Plus, the other alternatives to deal with an out-of-control Discord are either petrifying him again (something that might be a Fate Worse than Death) or outright destroying him.
  • How the heck do those work in the first place?
  • I'd keep in mind that we don't really know how those spells work or what they even do. As far as we know they could be something more like a Power Limiter or an ankle bracelet.
  • This is kinda terrifying after reading a set of these fics in which something like that does exist.
• Fluttershy proves once and for all that she's a Magnificent Bitch Guile Hero. Do I really need to go into what would happen if she remained mean from Putting Your Hoof Down or The Return of Harmony?
• During the episode Discord reveals that although he has been immobile for the last 1000 years he was still conscious and able to hear what others were saying around him, it make you wonder what toll it took on his sanity.
• In the beginning of the episode Celestia wants to reform Discord because she needs to use his powers. So if Celestia didn't find a use for him he would still be a statue, forever.
  • Or that there's something even worse out there and Celestia needs all the help she can get.
    • Continuing on that tangent, this may actually tie in with the next level of Twilight Sparkle's magic training from The Crystal Empire... Foreshadowing, anyone?
    • Also the fact that Celestia had seen many old evils returning lately, including Discord himself, Nightmare Moon, and King Sombra, all of them having been handled in the past by Celestia and/or Luna. Celestia knows the risks of having Sealed Evil in a Can and is looking for alternatives, offering Discord a chance to reform (something that worked with Nightmare Moon) before considering destroying him (as it happened with King Sombra).
    • There's also the possibility that she wanted to reform him so he wouldn't be stuck with a Fate Worse than Death forever (she might not have known he was conscious the first time around), and made up the bit about finding a use for him so that she could justify his release.
    • This is very fitting with Celestia's character and the show's overall tone; trying to use a friendly solution to problems before resorting to more extreme measures. Also, since she knows that Discord, even as a statue, can hear everything she says, Celestia might think Discord himself wouldn't believe she's trying to reform him just because it's the right thing to do and she dislikes using such a cruel imprisonment method for him, and therefore he'd be even more resistant to any attempt of reforming him.
    • Discord would get out eventually. Best to try to reform him while you still have people capable of containing him around.
• Discord, by his own words, has never had a friend. This adds a new level of horror to his previous activities. Given his social skills, it would be child's play to make any were he the least bit interested. So that means, that for as long as he has been around he has never considered even one of the beings around him worthy of treating as more than a toy. Everything around him, just a worthless noisemaker, an object to obey his whim. He's never been portrayed as caring for others, but this throws into sharp relief just how bad he was.
  • Forget how bad he was, how about "how he got that way in the first place"? He's not incapable of empathy or remorse, he can and does respond to attempts to make him grow a conscience...who's to say the reason he became the malevolent Great Gazoo we all know and love/loathe is because no one actually gave him a reason to stop treating them like playthings? There's a difference between inborn psychopathy and having empathy wrung out of you by a terrible life...
    • Even a token effort to fit in would have allowed him to stay with people without being attacked, and his social skills show that he knows that. He never tried, and that makes his lack of friends more monstrous than sad. His lack of friends was very clearly due to a lack of desire.
    • Then why was he responsive in the first place?
    • This isn't about being responsive, it's about lack of interest. Even with Fluttershy, he wasn't interested, it was just that his plan required him to stay around her for an extended period of time without attacking her. Why he cared about her friendship so much was never explained.
  • Until we learn more about how Discord came to be in the first place, if ever, all we have to go by is his present-day characterization and power level. Which in combination actually explain his never having had a friend before quite well — he's immensely powerful and perfectly willing to use that power on a whim and without apparent restraint, traits that lend themselves infinitely better to inspiring fear than to doing the same for any degree of trust. If it wasn't for Fluttershy being a virtual saint (fully in character), chances are that nothing would have changed this time around either.
• Although Discord has reformed, his personality hasn't changed and he is still essentially a Physical God who's raw power easily dwarfs that of even Celestia. The only thing stopping him from returning to his monstrous ways is that he realized he values Fluttershy's friendship and is consciously making an effort to behave himself to preserve it. Think for a minute what might happen if he and Fluttershy have a falling out, or worse yet, if something tragic were to happen to her. Rather than becoming the Great Gazoo who is in it For the Evulz once more, he might go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge and raze Equestria to the ground out of anger.
  • Discord is also essentially immortal. What happens when Fluttershy dies of old age? What if he can't comprehend the idea of death and goes Ax-Crazy?
    • Well, he CAN warp reality to his will…
    • Hopefully, by the time Fluttershy passes away, Discord will already have made other friends that will help him stay a good guy.
• Discord is redeemed, which is good. But what does this say about King Sombra, who was considered evil enough by the writers to be flat out killed? If Discord had enough good in him to be redeemed, just how much worse must King Sombra have been?
  • It's actually not that hard to imagine a pony worse than Discord if we're willing to concede that he may in fact not be in it For the Evulz after all. Sure — he's not a "good guy" by any stretch (yet, anyway), and during his premiere two-parter he put the Mane Six through the wringer. But on the other hand...why, precisely, should he handle a bunch of ponies he doesn't even know who are dead set on being his enemies and stuffing him right back into the prison he's only just finally escaped from with kid gloves? Just because they happen to be "our" protagonists? I think there's a trope for that particular trap...
  • There is a key difference between Discord and Sombra. Sombra clearly had zero chance of redemption, while Discord actually had a chance at redemption that was taken in the end.
    • In all honesty, Discord came across as worse in his first appearance. Sombra was merely uncaring about the pain of his subjects, while Discord delighted in it. Sombra was actually hurting them for a purpose, while Discord was doing it for laughs. Sombra was more Lex Luthor, while Discord was more The Joker.
    • True, but unlike The Joker Discord doesn't fully grasp the suffering his fun causes-only with Fluttershy teaching how to be nice does Discord get what "nice" is. To be truly evil, you need to know that evil exists. Sombra, on the other hand, is completely aware of what right and wrong are, and unlike Discord has neither a different moral compass nor was he born that way and thus in his nature to commit evil-he chooses to bring people to despair solely because Its All About Sombra.
    • Discord was in no way, shape, or form oblivious to the pain he was causing. He considered it to be the point of his games, and loved causing psychological suffering. Discord considered himself evil.
    • Discord had a purpose as well, to get the Mane Six out of the way, so he could rule. After all, he just escaped from his stone prison, and he didn't want to go back while these girls clearly did, and he felt like having fun get rid of them. While he did get rid of them through making others suffer, so did Sombra. Seriously, Sombra's main method of keeping control was stealing the Crystal Ponies' symbol of hope and joy, and keep them in a state of misery. He clearly traumatized them so much they felt pain at the very thought of him. Discord's subjects, while not very happy, were never shown to be in the state of misery Sombra's were, except for in a stained glass window, which Princess Twilight Sparkle shows isn't entirely accurate. Also, Sombra's main protection against ponies getting the Crystal Heart was a door makes ponies see their worst fear. If Spike hadn't come, Twilight wouldn't have escaped, making her live in her worst nightmare forever. He had no more reason to use this as a psychological weapon than Discord. Also, Sombra, unlike Discord, had no problems with ''killing a child''.
• Discord considers Fluttershy a friend now. Which means he could easily stop by Ponyville to hang out for a while any time. And until he learns some restraint, this could be... very disruptive, at best, even if he means well.
  • I'm actually hoping for this; An episode with Discord coming back and Fluttershy quickly realizing that his friendship is just as dangerous and unpredictable as his hatred would be awesome. It would make sense, given the character's main inspiration was much the same way.
  Picard: Q wants to do me a favor.
  Riker: I'll alert the crew.
• Why does anyone believe that Discord has actually reformed? Because Celestia said so? She displayed her omniscience so well in "A Canterlot Wedding," didn't she? And as the next season opener will show, even if Discord keeps his word and engages in no more evil planning, that doesn't mean he intends to lift a finger to stop any of his already extant evil plans from coming to fruition. That does NOT sound like reformation so much as a Morality Chain, and those can be very easily broken.
  • Discord still somewhat helped Twilight in his own jerkass way by telling her to go back to her friends. Considering how bad the vines were getting, he could've not only help Twilight realize her friends needed help and taught her a lesson, but stopped her friends from you know, dying in the growing Everfree. Also, he was being a Trickster Mentor in that episode, using his lying and manipulation skills to teach Twilight and even her friends an important lesson and helping them actually bond more by having them realize that they need each other, and one of their friends being a princess and giving up what brought them together won't change that. He's more of a manipulative, jerkass version of Celestia, putting the fate of Equestria (Or the Crystal Empire in one case) in the hooves of Twilight so she'll learn a lesson.
    • Except he was responsible for the vines in the first place, and hundreds if not thousands of people suffered just to make his asinine point.
    • While he was responsible, it wasn't like he planted them now, in his reformed state, but thousands of moons ago, when he was an evil overlord. It doesn't entirely excuse him, but it was still an action in his pre-reformation state, and as said above, he actually did help Twilight, in his own jerkass way, by telling her to go back. Also, Celestia almost let Equestria be covered in smoke and eventually die out because she wanted Twilight to learn a lesson. She also put the fate of the Crystal Empire in Twilight's hooves for a "test" and then later sent her a spell that nearly altered the livelihood of everypony forever just so that she could pass yet another "test". In all those instances, Celestia could have handled it. It's the same with Discord, except he actually did give Twilight a clue to make her go back to her friends.
    • He clearly knew about the plunder vines and could have dealt with them at any time. Instead, he let them rampage over thousands of innocent ponies, and furthermore, when he heard that the Elements were no longer in use, the only reason he didn't go straight into "take over Equestria" mode was because of a scolding from Fluttershy, indicating he may very well have been biding his time. The only reason Discord didn't straight up murder the Mane 6 may just be because that's not his style, preferring Ahuizotl-like overly complex traps rather than straight up killing.

Magical Mystery Cure

• Why was Starswirl the Bearded trying to make a spell that swapped destinies and made unicorns grow wings. Perhaps he was trying to switch destinies with Princess Celestia
  • Celestia didn't come about until well after the time of Star Swirl...
    • What makes you say that? In Twilight's Kingdom, we see Scorpan talk to Starswirl, and shortly afterwards talk to the Royal Sisters.
• Twilight Sparkle has become an Alicorn Princess, presumably of Magic/Friendship. Now imagine if that grants her immortality, or at least ridiculously long life, like Celestia and Luna who are over a thousand years old. She will outlive her true true friends, and maybe even her "number one assistant" (assuming alicorns live longer than dragons) by hundreds, maybe thousands of years.
  • Furthermore, how about her duties in Canterlot? Is there a risk Twilight will gradually get so caught up in royal work that she will grow apart with her friends in Ponyville - just like she already had with her brother before that?
    • Seems like it would be a good episode plot, actually. Possibly this "part two and three," the continuation of the season finale that has been hinted at by the staff. She'll learn a valuable lesson, possibly two. One, being that even though she now has power, she isn't as responsible with it as she thinks she is. And two being that even if something really important is taking up much of your time, you should make room for your friends however you can. Seriously, I'm calling it right now.
    • The whole "outliving her friends" thing has been given a reasonable answer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0lkhpZlm6w
    • Except, it's pretty much wishful thinking. We know Age Spell changes appearance, there is nothing indicating it changes lifespan. Think about it - where are hundreds of exceptionally powerful unicorns capable of casting it? No matter how you slice it, immortals would accumulate over time, and yet, Celestia is the only one ever responding to a crisis. Why Nightmare Moon's return wasn't met with opposition of brigade of powerful spellcasters? Why six kids are the only ones opposing Discord or Sombra? Where is Starswirl? Finally, why there is death at all if ponies can stop it?
    • Even if age spells do work that way who's to say the rest of the Main Six even *want* to outlive all of their friends and family. They may opt to live out their lives normally. Which might actually be even worse for Twi because her friends (understandably) chose to leave her.
  • Maybe not ALL alicorns are immortal. In Twilight's flashback, Candace is obviously younger than the present one, yet she aged at the same rate of Shining Armor. Celestia and Luna may just be special cases, being the sun and moon godesses.
    • Actually it's been shown that they can age (look at Luna in her first appearance compared to now) an Faust's Word of God stated that as Luna matured she'd end up looking less like Nightmare Moon. Although whether that is still in the cards now that she's gone remains to be seen. They may just mature and then stop aging (kind of like a Rainicorn in Adventure Time).
  • Since age spells have come up in "Magic Duel", the possibility exists that any notional alicorn immortality is itself simply the result of being powerful enough to use those. And they can apparently be cast on others as well. Now, whether Twilight's friends would all want to live forever is another question...
  • This one has been officially jossed by Word of God. Twilight won't be outliving her friends, though what that means isn't entirely clear.
    • That statement is vague enough to open doors to any possible conclusion, one of the simplest, though dark, ways that could be interpreted is well... she won't outlive her friends because her friends have already outlived her. That burn mark followed by heaven/ethereal plane imagery, life being played back for her, getting wings, ascension via enlightenment etc etc. , in short the pretty purple pony princess is possibly a phastasm powered by Philia.
• So, the major obstacle that must be overcome in this episode is trying to find a way to undo a spell that swaps destinies in the worst way possible. Now, it may have been a 'secret, unfinished spell', but that doesn't mean Twilight was the first to try and cast it. At the very least, Star Swirl must have had some notion of what he was accomplishing with a destiny-altering spell. So does this mean that, at some point in history, a bunch of ponies were stuck with goals they could never hope to achieve and spent the rest of their lives oblivious to the truth? Also, if such a spell could be created and used without any harm done to the caster, just how much could reality be altered in the...hooves of an equally talented unicorn, or a powerful alicorn?
  • It may not have happened to Star Swirl at all. When Twilight cast it the elements were in the house with her and it was instrumental to changing the destiny pf her friends, a variable that Star Swirl may not have had. Plus Celestia gave her the spell itself, with no warning attached to it or even a hint of what it would have done, so it probably didn't work for Star Swirl the same way as it did Twilight.
• Twilight's closing remark in her coronation speech is based off of Lou Gehrig's famous line, "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth." Lou Gehrig was dying of ALS, which later became known as Iron Horse disease.
• Now that Twilight is a powerful alicorn princess, there's just one problem: we know of Twilight's past history of going insane at least once. Could she end up like Princess Luna once did?
  • Twilight doesn't seem to have the raw power needed to pose the kind of threat that she did. Of course, not being strong enough to require the usage of the Elements is no guarantee of mercy...
• When Twilight finished the spell and vanished, it was midday. She doesn't return to Ponyville until dusk. How would that feel, to see your best friend vaporized (leaving behind a scorch mark, no less) and not know what happened until several hours later?
• When the ponies switched destinies and jobs, they also switched houses. This means Rarity, a unicorn, believed she owned Rainbow Dash's house, which is made of clouds and she couldn't even enter. The poor girl was homeless... in the rain... which everypony already blamed her for.
  • Unless she was so convinced of her role that she cast the appropriate spells for her to get into - and stay inside - the cloud house.
• Twilight has a history of going a little bit crazy, and occasionally a lot crazy. And now she's a princess. Her next meltdown could be painfully public. As in all of Equestria hears about it. And, as the saying goes, you only get one chance at a first impression...
  • The conclusion of 'Crystal Empire' and the whole of 'Games Ponies Play' (probably others in S3?) indicate that she has become better at dealing with stress. Doesn't rule out a meltdown entirely, but she may be less likely to go "a lot crazy" now than she once was. And according to Celestia this growth is part of why Twilight has been 'crowned' in the first place.
• Here's a thought-provoking one for you: if cutie marks determine a pony's destiny, and that cutie mark is "always" for what is best for that pony, why create a spell that would change that destiny? Why make a spell that would change fate and destiny at all? Well, we already know that Star Swirl the Bearded had created a spell that allowed him to travel through time. However, currently it is impossible to change the past/present/future using time travel, since fate and destiny are real in this world. What if Star Swirl went forward in time, and witnessed a future so horrible that he dedicated the rest of his life to trying to find a way to change fate, so that he could prevent this bad future from happening?
  • The Reign of Discord? Or maybe pegasus ponies and earth ponies being treated as the equals of the unicorn ponies?
  • There's no indication that what Star Swirl wanted the spell to do is what it actually does.
• Here's a bit of horrific implications for everyone. In the episode, five of the "Mane Six" have their cutie marks switch causing them to essentially switch destinies and their "Elements of Harmony". This includes Fluttershy. Who did Fluttershy befriend earlier? Discord. Discord has only recently learned the importance of friendship and Fluttershy is (so far) the only genuine friend he's ever had. Fluttershy's destiny/cutie mark was changed to Pinkie's cutie mark in this episode. Imagine what it must've been like for Discord to see the one friend he's ever had in his entire life suddenly "change" and is (in a sense) no longer the person he knows and cares about. What sort of toll would that have taken on his mental state, and, what would happen if he did lose Fluttershy forever?
  • On the plus side, she did have her Element swapped out for his favorite Element: Laughter, so he's probably not that miffed with the fact that Fluttershy's job is to (try to) make people laugh. Now, the big problem is that who Fluttershy swapped roles with. The pony who is always on Discord's case and was acting very aggressive towards is now living in Fluttershy's house, and assuming that she has Fluttershy's role. Though this is Discord we're talking about. He didn't seem to care about being Taken for Granite all that much.
  • Discord's whole business is chaos. I'm pretty sure he'd appreciate the situation for the insanity it caused. He's have some laughs, see how much the situation bothered Fluttershy and then either offer to help her entertain people better (while blowing off everyone else) or just pointing Twilight in the direction to fix it in exchange for making her do something humiliating.
• Fluttershy's animals have tied up Rainbow Dash and placed her in a cauldron to presumably cook and eat her. This is played for laughs, so it really isn't all that horrifying on its own. The part that is weirdly disturbing is that with the exception of a bear and an owl, every one of those angry creatures dancing around the pot and brandishing eating utensils is an herbivore. This could lead to a couple of unsavory implications, the most unsettling of which is that they're only excited because eating Dash requires murdering her.
  • That's not really the most unsettling thing. Herbivores are cooperating with carnivores. Why? Perhaps for a share of the food or to NOT be on the bear's menu? And then there really wasn't any indication that they were going to kill Rainbow before they started cooking was there?
  • Along that line, the animals were hungry enough to cook there own caretaker. Earlier, there was this vulture, chewing on some kind of peach colored slime, almost like...flesh. Vultures are largely scavengers, meaning this creature must have already been dead. How many animals starved to death before that point?
• How come the mane six suck so much at what they don't normally do? I mean with applejack it's A BIT understandable, even though she had all the time to learn at least the basics of dressmaking, but how come all the animals seem to hate rainbow dash and want to kill her? Besides, if in this alternate reality they received their cutie mark on the same day as the normal one, that would mean they had been trying to get better at what they're "supposed" to do. I know Fluttershy is shy, but it's been shown she can get over it, and entertaining people was what she saw as her destiny! How is it even possible that after presumably years of being ponyville's weather pony, Rarity still thinks she should care more about what the clouds look like than about what is falling on the ground?! There are many pegasi who know this stuff and I don't think they would let an UNICORN mess up the weather like hell without so much as a word of advice. I mean, not just anypony becomes the weather pony, right? And Pinkie Pie! I don't think it's actually been shown that she was ridiculously incompetent, but driving sweet apple acres out of business...with previous farming experience(granted, rock farming)...and the Apples to help her(yeah, I don't think she owned the farm, it'd be more likely she was employed by the Apples, since Applejack was into dressmaking.
  • Because it's built into their character. Remember how much Pinkie Pie HATED rock farming? It's also probably pretty different than apple farming, and it's been shown that not all apples are normal, and fixing broken things she doesn't understand? Being forced to do chores when so much of her personality is based around creating and spreading fun? And Rarity isn't just some clothing designer, but an up and coming fashion designer who's talented enough to catch the eye of famous fashion/designer/high-class ponies. Creating balance in a design has EVERYTHING to do with patterns and symmetry, so her making the weather look nice could have been her way of trying to make the weather work properly. And dealing with many, many different types of animals all cooped up in the same place who don't like you can spiral out of control very, very quickly.
• In this alternate universe, think about the repercussions of the mane cast's problems on the cutie mark crusaders' psyche!
• Here's a question to ask, which I got after reading Misfile. Which is easier, To change the lives of five ponies or to change the life of one pony? What if that alternate universe, their cutie marks were the correct ones? Once Twilight cast the unfinished spell, she messed up her memories, which fed back through the Elements and caused her friends to suddenly start screwing up at their cutie marks?
• In this episode, consider that Pinkie reverts to Pinkamena, Rainbow Dash is almost cooked and eaten, and due to an animation error Dash loses her wings. The coincidences are more than a tad disturbing.
• We see just how vital Pinkie is to morale in Ponyville. Then one looks at her lifestyle and realizes she will probably be dead within a generation...
  • Why? It's not like partying (the sort with fun food and balloons and dancing) is particularly dangerous or contributes to poor health. In fact, it probably ensures that she's physically active, which is good for health.
  • It's not like she can't pass the torch. Heck, if Cheese Sandwich is any indication, she can teach other ponies her ways without even knowing she's doing so.
• In response to questions about how Twilight learned to fly so quickly: Consider the scene from Equestria Girls and previews from Season 4 in which she's not yet very good at it. It's entirely possible that she didn't learn, and that her first (overconfident) flight at the close of the episode ended with a spectacular crash seconds after the Iris Out, since at that point she was a couple thousand feet over Ponyville.

---