Headscratchers / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic - Season 6

Headscratchers Index

Seasons:

Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
Season 5
Season 6 (You are here.)
Season 7
Season 8
Season 9

Others:

Setting
General Canon

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6.01 & 6.02 The Crystalling

• Why is Starlight Glimmer having anxiety issues now? Everyone, even the town she enslaved, have been nothing but supportive of her, so why didn't she show such immediately after her Heel–Face Turn during the "Friends Are Always There For You" song, when her guilt should have been at its worst? Why now (presumably) months afterwards when she's presumably had more time to deal with it?
  • There is no sign this takes place "months" after, especially given how Twilight hasn't even officially started teaching Starlight at the start of the episode (Twilight refers to reuniting with Sunburst as Starlight's first friendship lesson). Also, its pretty clear the sudden prospect of reuniting with Sunburst is what really set off her anxiety.
• In a world that runs on magic, and unicorns and alicorns that can manipulate the world around them with things like teleportation, what exactly is considered a "wizard" in Equestria? If Sunburst was "a great wizard" how would that make him different than any other magically talented unicorn? Considering Starlight Glimmer is better at magic than he is does that mean she's considered a "witch?" I just don't see the point of the title when they could have just used "a great unicorn."
  • It's probably a job title for unicorns that are dedicated specifically to magic (studying, developing new spells, etc.), not just a unicorn that does magic(In that sense, Twilight is probably a wizard too)
  • They've called out a few times that, while any unicorn can use telekinesis and one or two other spells, magical talent as flexible and masterful as Twilight's or Starlight's is very rare. That's probably the requirement for being a "wizard."
• This bugged me in The Cutie Re-mark when Starlight’s backstory was first shown, and it comes up again here: Sunburst gets his cutie mark and runs out the door… only to apparently get immediately shipped off to magic school without ever a backward glance. When he has his outburst near the end, it’s evident there’s resentment about his lack of magical talent despite his vast magical knowledge, but him just basically ignoring Starlight the second he gets his cutie mark seems really off. He does say (eventually) that maybe he should have kept in contact (but even then, that’s in a "maybe you could have helped me" context), but that kind of feels hollow given the way everything played out. I know from experience how easily you can lose contact with old friends, but it seems like Sunburst made no effort to keep up the friendship, though granted Starlight didn’t exactly follow up either.
  • Getting your cutie mark is HUGE. It's like hitting puberty and finding your place all at the same time. Most ponies probably run out and brag. Having seen it twice what's odd is that Starlight didn't chase after him to essentially point out how awesome her best friend was. After that losing touch is just random. The overwhelming majority of adults aren't in touch with their best friends from high school let alone middle which is probably closer to the age those two are depicted as being.
• This episode brings up a question: In the show’s canon, are Celestia and Luna supposed to be alicorns born or made? The previous assumption according to the Journal of the Two Sisters was they were born alicorns, but their dialogue here is seriously ambiguous. Celestia talks about Equestria having never seen such a thing before regarding Flurry being a born alicorn, but you can easily go Exact Words on that statement and say, well Celestia and Luna predate Equestria so that statement doesn’t contradict anything. But, Luna then adds “that it is beyond even our understanding” which is the problematic sentence. What’s the take away message here? Again, depending on how one interprets it, it can go either way. It could be “this is the first time, ever” or “alicorns in Equestria are made, but previously they were born, elsewhere (though Cel&Luna have never actually seen it themselves)”. Now, there’s probably other interpretations too, but that’s what I’m seeing...
  • The wording is to vague. However it's not clear that Celestia and Luna predate Equestria. In fact Hearth's Warming Eve combined with The Return of Harmony would at the very least suggest the opposite. There is some currently unknown location where the three pony races live(d). Wendigos came and drove them out. They came to Equestria became friends and drove out the Wendigo. At some point after that Discord shows up. Then Celestia and Luna come from someplace (perhaps the ancestral pony lands which were cool once the Wendigo chased the majority of pony kind to Equestria) and defeat Discord. So born or made, predate or not they came from somewhere else. Assuming Rarity's line about Alicorn wings being earned is correct this contracts the comics that claim that Cadence was a Pegasus who earned her horn not the other way around. As for what the take away is the simplest answer is that Luna and Celestia do not know everything. Flurry Heart is probably pony Jesus though.
  • Or maybe the only thing beyond the Royal Sisters' understanding was how could an alicorn be born out of a unicorn and an ascended pegasus ('cause you know, Rarity doesn't have to be right in thinking that "artificial alicorn = ascended unicorn").
• With baby Flurry Heart's magic so out-of-control and destructive, why didn't Shining Armor and Cadance just send her through the "disabling spell" gate-thing used in "Equestria Games"?
  • Maybe they did, and that didn't work on her.
    • Given how those things were shown to work on even Celestia, Luna, Cadance, and Twilight, that's unlikely.
    • We were never actually shown whether they worked on those four (or even whether they were used on them at all); they didn't do anything at the climax, but that's easily explainable by them not having perfect reaction time.
    • Their reaction time sure seemed fast enough for them to start getting ready to fly, at least. And that, combined with one guard screaming for the disabling spell to be deactivated, pretty much established the gist of it.
  • Maybe one of her stray magic beams destroyed it.
    • There was more than one gate, though.
    • Given those gates were specifically for the Equestria Games they were presumably either taken apart when no longer need, or packed up and moved out (to wherever such things are stored between game) once the games were over. And said location would probably not be in the Crystal Empire given the games are held in different places each time.
• "Well, you don't know what it was like to be left behind! And then getting so bitter that you steal the cutie marks from an entire village and then get defeated by Twilight and her friends, so you travel through time to get back at them, but they beat you again and teach you about friendship, but you're so terrified ponies will find out what you did that you can't make any friends!" Wait, Twilight did NOT beat her the second time around. Starlight clearly had the upper hoof, Twilight even said that her magic alone was not enough to stop her. When Starlight was still evil and asked her if she still thought she could stop her, she said that she couldn't but would still keep trying. Glimmer bested her. The only reason things turned out alright in the end was because Twilight convinced her to turn good. If Starlight had not, she would have torn the scroll apart and won.
  • Starlight is just recalling things from her own perspective in an emotional moment. She's not writing an episode recap on a wiki. It's Metaphorically True that Twilight, her determination bolstered by the strength of her friendships, "beat" Starlight by using words to wear her down to the point where she didn't want to fight anymore. Starlight capitulated, therefore "lost", at least from her own perspective.
    • Which could be considered winning by forfeit. And besides that, Starlight's only way of "winning" (since she could not overpower Twilight either) would have been to destroy the scroll, which would have trapped her in the past just like Twilight, a Pyrrhic Victory at best.
• Did Princess Twilight never consult her former mentor on developing a lesson plan for her first student of Friendship? Apparently Celestia didn't know anything about Starlight's Backstory before the Crystalling, because Celestia immediately recognizes Sunburst as a former student and believes him when he says he knows how to stop the Endless Winter. Maybe if she had known he was in the Crystal Empire, he could have helped out Cadance and Shining Armor with the Fledglings Forbearance spell, thus averting the whole plot.
  • Sunburst is the one who said he had a plan to stop solve the situation and even if Celestia knew he was in the Crystal Empire, she couldn't have guess he would know anything especially since he wasn't particularly good at Magic School. It made more sense for Celestia to consult Twilight.
• In the Crystalling ceremony, the crystal shard is simply added to the Crystal Heart. So...when Flurry Heart accidentally the whole Heart, she didn't actually break it, but just disrupted the magic field binding all the shards together in a heart shape? Also, how many shards did it have to begin with? What happens to a shard when some Crystal pony dies? And why didn't Flurry Heart stay crystally like the other members of the Crystal Empire?
  • If the Heart was just a bunch of shards magical binded together, it wouldn't have cracked like it did. It was always a single artifact. Flurry Heart didn't stay crystalized simply because she's not a Crystal Pony.
  • Then how was the new shard added to the Crystal Heart? As explained in the episode, Sunburst doesn't have exceptional magical abilities, he just has a capacity for Encyclopaedic Knowledge, so he wouldn't have been able to actually perform a spell that would magically fuse the new shard into an existing crystal lattice.
    • Why not? It was never said that adding the crystalling crystal would be particularly difficult, or all things considered, it might not even need magic, as it was also never stated that the Crystaller had to be a unicorn (Or alicorn), presumably, if the Crystaller had been an Earth or Pegasus pony, either they would simply put the crystal near and it would add on its own, or a designated unicorn would add it for them.
    • Especially since Crystal Ponies seem to all be without wings or horns — so the Crystalling has to work even without that kind of magic.
• So, Why couldn't Starlight find her way to the throne room? She did just fine in "The Cutie Re-Mark", which were the previous two episodes.
  • She also had plenty of time to do so; we can't tell just how long Twilight stayed in Canterlot, and how long Starlight waited for her.
  • Presumably the corridor from outside goes directly into the Throne Room, so there is no trouble finding it from the outside, while Starlight's room is probably located elsewhere, and she has to actually navigate the castle.

6.03 The Gift of the Maud Pie

• Pinkie giving up her party cannon is treated like a big sacrifice. Since she traded it to get a present for Maud, it's shown that Maud's present (confetti for the cannon) becomes useless since she no longer has a cannon to use it with. But previous episodes (Such as Castle Sweet Castle) show that Pinkie has many similar cannons. Couldn't she fire the confetti from one of them, instead of having Rarity and Maud practically mug a guy to get that one specific cannon back?
  • Those were confetti cannons, which aren't necessarily the same thing. And she forgot where she put those, so odds are she won't be getting them back.
  • Maud was simply politely asking for the cannon back, it was Rarity who decided to play things up. In any event, the episode would have us believe that this cannon is at the very least special, and Pinkie is normally seen with only one. The only time I recall her using multiple cannons in the series was with the various hidden ones she placed in Twilight's castle, but we never saw what those looked like. They may well be quite different from her special cannon that she carries around and famously put away when she thought she wouldn't be a party pony anymore.
  • One of the comics insinuated it was a discontinued model, which clowning legend Ponyacci thought highly of. It also has a history of being admired by others in general, it clearly seems to be thought of as a valuable classic.
  • Or maybe it was Pinkie's first and/or favorite party cannon?
• OK, forget Pinkie's cannon. If she wanted to gift her sister special rock holder, why not use solution staring her in the face the whole time? Why make inane schemes to buy used one instead of handing Rarity a hooful of bits and telling her to *make* one quietly on the side, purchasing necessary materials with Pinkie's money? Rarity *loves* sewing and designing, it would take her five minutes to make custom, designer bag instead of just mass produced model Pinkie wanted!
  • Rarity didn't have her sewing machine or other tools with her though, she'd have to buy or rent them all and all without Maud noticing.
• If Manehatten is as large as they always make it seem, why not find another rock pouch shop in the city? Surely there's more than one in a city that large. It just seems overly dramatic to focus on the one shop; it's entirely possible the pony Pinkie Pie traded her cannon for the pouch with had gotten it from another shop somewhere else than the place that had been closed. Instead of being forced to trade her cannon, she could have asked where he got it and if the place was a different venue than the one Pinkie Pie had visited earlier, she could have easily gone out to purchase a pouch for Maud.
  • Pet rocks seems like a pretty niche thing in Equestria, that there even is a shop specializing in them is surprising. It seems likely that there was only that one shop, hence why Pinkie was so focused on it.
• Pinkie has plans for her parents' wedding anniversaries centuries from now, yet she waited until the day of to buy her present for Maud? A bit of advance planning would have solved the episode's conflict before it even happened.

6.04 On Your Marks

• Why did Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon not talk to Apple Bloom and helped her with her Issue? Diamond had a different but kinda similar issue which help lead the Crusaders to befriend her, I mean, at that episoide she learned to be more herself and not depend on what their parents expected about her, Apple Bloom learned not to depend on her friends to enjoy what she does, also they were close enough to help her which would have worked since they're not her bullies anymore, so?
• Apple Bloom declares that the Cutie Mark Crusaders are having their first meeting after gaining their Cutie Marks. So what were they doing in the club house at the end of "Crusaders of The Lost Mark" if they weren't having a meeting?
  • Hanging out, they're friends. Not every get together is a Crusaders meeting.

6.05 Gauntlet of Fire

• Garble's name wasn't actually mentioned in "Dragon Quest", so how did Spike and Rarity know it here?
  • Garble gave it offscreen?
• Twilight Sparkle is an alicorn princess who took on Ragnarok level threats against Equestria, and yet she's intimidated by some teenage punk dragon like Garble?
  • It is notable that no pony in the series has ever been seen to actually fight a dragon (Rainbow Dash kicked one to no real effect), all we know is that it is common knowledge for ponies that dragons are extremely dangerous. So we don't know just how well they could handle it if they fought back. Or perhaps Twilight was simply not sure what to do, given she was intent on not interfering in any of the events unless she absolutely had to. Ember getting involved meant she didn't have to decide regardless. Course none of that explains why she didn't simply teleport herself and Rarity away.
  • Twilight doesn't seem to always be aware of how strong she is. Additionally like with the Yaks she risks starting an interspecies conflict. A princess may be able to take on a full grown dragon, we don't know. We do however know that six ponies were presented as an utter non-threat to a single dragon.
  • Celestia told Twilight she had to be careful before she and Rarity left. Even if she could beat Garble maybe she didn't want too and risk causing an incident for interfering in the contest by attacking one of the contestants. Until then she and Rarity had only been cheering on Spike and Ember from the sidelines and did nothing to help or hurt either of them, but if they fought against a contestant directly, even in self-defense they would be breaking the rules, Spike and Ember could be accused of cheating, and Equestria might face backlash for the incident.
  • Same reason the United States is "intimidated" by North Korea: yeah they could start a war at sunrise and be home in time for lunch, but the diplomatic and collateral consequences would be absolutely dire. Mud-hole stomping some dumb punk dragon would just bring trouble to Equestria, and Twilight (As a diplomatic leader of the country) has a responsibility to pony-kind to not do that sort of thing.
• Where do the dragons live? Earlier episodes suggest that dragons don't really live in Equestria so much as migrate through/over it. Torch however specifically addresses his subjects as 'Dragons of Equestria' which implies they are residents. They seem a little large on average to have settled within the borders and have little formal relationship with ponies and no noted territory.
  • The term "Equestria" seems to sometimes be used (depending on context) for not just the pony-controlled land but the lands around them. Even in the episode the land the ponies live in is distinguished by Ember who scathingly calls it "Pony land." Likewise in different contexts the Crystal Empire and Griffin Kingdom are at times regarded as part of Equestria and at other times as separate from it. On the other hand, back in "Dragonshy" the surprise from the ponies was that a "full grown" dragon was in Equestria, so perhaps younger ones do live in remote areas of it, and Torch was speaking to young dragons.
  • It could be that the country of Equestria shares its name with the continent it's on, similar to how the United States of America is on the North American continent.

6.06 No Second Prances

• Why do Trixie and Starlight blame Twilight for telling the truth? Trixie actually used Starlight to 'defeat' Twilight, and then the latter point it out, they both blamed her for it, and made her apologize. I don't get it — so, you have no right to tell a truth about your friend's friend?
  • Starlight didn't blame Twilight for Trixie having ulterior motives. Trixie did but that was just her deflecting in the heat of the moment. In the next scene Trixie admits to the whole crowd that it was all her own fault. For her part, Twilight apologized for being too judgmental, even if her judgment was partially right she saw it as not right for her to try to choose things in Starlight's place. Twilight wasn't "made" to apologize either.
• Why is Twilight so bitchy with Trixie? Trixie apologized after the Alicorn Amulet issue. By contrast she's downright chummy with Starlight though that may be partially an act and the one time she was truly outright rude to Discord she was in the middle of accusing him of kidnapping Celestia and Luna.
  • Twilight wasn't "bitchy". She's worried that Starlight and Trixie might reinforce each other's negative qualities, and that Starlight, to whom Twilight now has some responsibility as a teacher, might get hurt by Trixie. She is right. Trixie, despite her apology, is still a bit of a self-centered glory hound prone to using tricks to get her way. Starlight's first attempt at making a new friend leaves her vulnerable to bad influences. It's possible for two mostly-decent people to make a horrible pairing, and that's what Twilight sees. Note that Twilight is never rude to Trixie to her face; she only talks to starlight and the closest she comes to insulting Trixie is saying she "wasn't the nicest pony." Considering what Trixie actually did, that's being pretty generous.
  • And what is so horrible that Trixie did, that calling her 'not the nicest pony' is being pretty generous?
    • Instead of trying to better herself she spent a bunch of time saving up to get a powerful, dangerous artifact (which to some degree she knew was dangerous given how she brought it) all for the sake of humiliating/beating Twilight (who had done nothing herself to hurt her). This is before the amulet corrupted her and certainly makes her count as at least "not the nicest pony."
    • Trixie is not the nicest pony and she did deal with a dangerous artifact and enslaved Ponyville. Starlight started pony Communism and then literally ruined the present with a time travel spell and Twi is downright Chummy. Discord turned the world mad and she wasn't nearly as harsh with him before or after he betrayed them to Tirek. This is less about Trixie deserving it which she does and worse and more about why Twilight is delivering which isn't quite her MO.
    • Not to mention that in personality, Trixie has not changed. Even if Twilight did forgive her for enslaving Ponyville, Trixie is still kind of a jerk. Trixie's first appearance of the show is marked by her humilaiting her opponents through trickery rather than actually trying to best them while gloating the entire time. She may have apologized for what she did with the Amulet, but she didn't apologize for being a Jerkass during her first trip to Ponyville and didn't see herself as doing anything wrong.
    • The damage Starlight did to the timeline was unintentional and got undone, and she accepted Twilight's conditions for her redemption. And Twilight wasn't harsh with Discord? She was at best suspicious and at worst disdainful of him in pretty much their every interaction after he got redeemed by Fluttershy (largely thanks to his near constant teasing and antagonizing). In contrast Twilight attempted to be polite with Trixie and focused on Starlight's well being. She only even openly expresses her negative feelings toward Trixie after Trixie coerces Starlight into skipping the dinner.
• So they are really going to gloss over that Trixie essentially attempted suicide in a moment of despair? This episode makes it explicit that her only spell is the standard edition levitation spell. All the indications Trixie gives suggest that the manticore really would have eaten her.
  • Not really, the manticore swallowed instead of chewing Trixie (unlike in the flashback), seemed otherwise tame and even took a bow. Its not out of the question that it would have spat her out if need be. At the very least, neither Twilight or Starlight thought Trixie's life was on the line, just her recovering reputation.
    • Trixie certainly appeared frightened when she ducked into the cannon and she's clearly a little worse for the wear after Starlight saves her.
• Trixie doesn't have real magic since when? Back in her first appearance she turns Rarity's hair into a green nest and assaults Rainbow Dash with a rainbow. Even Rarity in that episode is shown simply transforming a curtain into a dress. Trixie isn't as powerful as Twilight true but her first appearance gave her at least some true magic to use along with her theatrics.
  • It was generalizing to compare stage magic to actual spells, the magic Trixie has helps her in various stage tricks (minor transformations and such), but that is about the extent of it. Compared to ponies like Starlight and Twilight it could be said to not be "real magic." Also when Starlight said that she was referring to using real magic for that particular trick, something Trixie couldn't do even if one calls her other magic real magic.
• In a world where everyone knows magic exists would Ponies be more likely to go to a magic show to appreciate the tricks and the theatrics... based on that did Trixie and Starlight technically blow the Moonshot Manticore Mouth Dive because they "used magic?"
  • My guess is that magic isn't prohibited during such shows. Think of it this way: you're going to a restaurant to eat fancy food in fancy surroundings, but also you can eat home. The same is here: sure, they can see magic all around them, but they prefer magic with tricks and theatrical effects.
  • Possibly but only because the MMMD was probably performed in some other very specific way. Teleporting is a sufficiently well-known skill (even if Trixie can't do it) that her not being able to figure out how Hoofdini did it and it being teleporting is absurd. She's smart enough to know how it was done even if she can't physically perform the act. Given that in Boast Busters nobody treats Trixie as a mere performer suggests that real magic is expected. She may actually be quite a bit more talented than she's given credit for, something along the lines of Oz in Oz the Great and Powerful. A mere actor who has managed to baffle genuine magic users.
  • To me, any complaints about "real" magic being used in the trick would be drowned out by the sheer audacity of Trixie launching herself into a freakin Manticore and coming out (mostly) unharmed. Keep in mind that the stunt is basically a Harry Houdini trick, and arguably the appeal of Houdini's stunts wasn't just him escaping shackles, but doing it while under extreme circumstances (such as buried alive or in a water tank). The same thing can be said to apply here; it isn't her using magic, it's her using magic in such an extreme circumstance that if something were to go wrong she could be seriously hurt or killed.
• Why exactly is everypony so eager to even watch Trixie's show after what she did to them last time she was in Ponyville? Especially Pinkie, who had the objectively worst treatment from Trixie. (Unless they want to see her mess up the trick and get eaten)
• Where did Trixie get that manticore on such short notice?
  • Ponyville is right next to Everfree Forest, so getting a manticore, or other wild, dangerous creatures, isn't that much of a problem; the real question would be how did she get an already trained one. Judging by her reactions at the show, it's obvious that it wasn't the same manticore Fluttershy befriended way back in the show's second episode.
• Why does Trixie still want to fulfill her personal vendetta against Twilight in the first place? She fired her from the Alicorn Amulet's influence, and yet she still sees her as a rival that must be beaten at any cost.
  • Trixie explains her problem with Twilight to Starlight in this very episode: she's jealous of Twilight. Twilight has everything Trixie wants: magical power and skill, friends, popularity, fame and respect. So while she's not actively pursuing a plan to get back at Twilight being around Twilight stirs up those feelings and in a moment of weakness she gave into them and took advantage of the situation to beat Twilight at something. It's the same reason she makes passive aggressive comments at Twilight in the season finale. It's a flaw she slowly overcomes as she becomes more secure in her own life and accomplishments.

6.07 Newbie Dash

• Why do the Wonderbolts have to wait to cross the runway instead of just flying over the damn thing?!
  • Pegasi coming in for a landing could still be flying high enough to run into them.

6.08 A Hearth's Warming Tail

• Shouldn't the pony version of Sherlock have, well, a silver blaze on his forehead?

6.09 The Fault in Our Cutie Marks

• Twilight claims ponies are the only creatures with cutie marks, but zebras have them (or something closely resembling them) too. That Zecora herself is seen later in the episode makes this more jarring.
  • Either zebras "count" as ponies or what Zecora has is the equivalent of a tattoo/paint
    • Most likely, the latter. If zebras are close enough to count as ponies, then so are donkeys, mules, and horses. All confirmed donkeys, mules, and horses to appear in the show so far have been blank. Zebra culture is inspired by those of traditional native African tribes, where tattoos and other adornments are common. And Zecora does keep herself and her home decorated with relics from her native culture.
  • Twilight didn't make that claim. She says that nothing in her research says anything about Cutie Marks appearing on anything but a pony. She says immediately afterward that it's highly unlikely to happen, but not before disclaiming that she can't say definitively that it's straight-up impossible.
• Why is Petunia Paleo called an archeologist when the correct term should be paleontologist since she dug up dinosaur fossils? And why would her parents be worried that her skull and bones cutie mark would mean she’d become a pirate?
  • In human terms, paleontologist would be the correct term, but remember that there are no humans in Equestria (Equestria Girls doesn't count, and even Tirek's upper body half appears more simian than humanoid). Also, the ponysaurus skull looks like that of a realistic horse's, so maybe ponysauruses weren't actually dinosaurs, but prehistoric ponies (the equine equivalent of hominids). So, if Petunia discovered pony remains, then yes, she would be an archeologist.
    • "Shadow Play" later seemed to fix this by having Petunia discover an ancient relic belonging to Rockhoof at an archaeological site.
  • As for her parents, as stated on the season 6 Fridge Brilliance page, there's a popular fan theory that they were once pirates themselves based on their cutie marks: Mr. Paleo's is a pair of crossed rapiers, while Mrs. Paleo's is a pearl inside an oyster. Those two, when combined with Petunia's skull/bones mark, make up the three most common symbols in pirate lore: Swordplay, treasure, and the skull & crossbones.

6.13 Spice Up Your Life

• If Zesty Gourmand's tastes are so out of touch with most ponies, why does her opinion and rating carry so much sway in the first place? Given nopony but her seems to enjoy that kind of food, wouldn't most ponies have just written her off when they realized her tastes were lousy?
  • Well, Zesty apparently has a high place in Canterlot society and we know that the ponies there will agree with anypony if they have enough power and influence, remember how fast Jet and Upper Crust "changed" their opinion of Rarity because Fancy Pants liked her. So even if they think her food choices are terrible, they'll approve it anyway because she's high-class, which means they won't go to any restaurants that don't meet her standards, which means the restaurants will lose business unless they change. The more restaurants change to please her, means the more power she has, and the more power she has means more ponies will agree with her, which means more restaurants need to change just to stay in business.
  • Zesty Gourmand's tastes are not lousy or weird, and she is not wrong for having them. Where she is wrong is in making every restaurant on the Row cater to her tastes alone, both in food and in décor, or face having the dreaded "no hooves". Especially since supertasters like her are probably rare, and only they could benefit from a review written from just her perspective.

6.14 Stranger than Fan Fiction

• Why does Rainbow Dash have such a hard time lifting Quibble Pants on the collapsing bridge, and why would is there "no time" for her and Daring Do to fly Quibble Pants out of the temple? Pegasi don't usually have this much trouble air-carrying other ponies. Rainbow Dash herself carried four in "Sonic Rainboom", and that was from ground level up to Cloudsdale in seconds. Is Quibble Pants just really, really heavy for some reason?
  • Sonic Rainboom isn't a great example because it involved the legendary Sonic Rainboom. Rainbow Dash in that scenario had a LOT of momentum so she wasn't so much lifting as redirecting. However as with most works of fiction all of the Mane 6 suffer from as strong as the plot requires. Fluttershy probably most of all as she fluctuates between being able to run down Rainbowdash while towing a balloon with the other ponies inside it to barely being able to produce any wing power.
  • In addition to above, feats of strength are not only rare, they usually appear only if gag or plot depends on it. If a pegasus was really strong enough to lift another pony reliably, they would be flying much faster when unencumbered. Seeing they don't, and in the book (decried by Quibble as filled with unrealistic feats) Daring Do uses her flight so sparingly she walks on unsafe bridge instead of flying over it, and jumps to safety instead of flying up, we can conclude that no, ponies are not that strong. 'Unrealistic' escape from the temple only confirms it.
  • Judging By Quibble's next appearance, he's out of shape. Being chubbier than a average pony (not that you can tell given how the animation refuses models) is possible.
• Is Quibble Pants simply not from Equestria and they failed to mention that? I obviously haven't read the Daring Do novels but even if we accept that Nightmare Moon was taken care of before anybody but the Mane 6, Celestia and Luna really found out and Discord was entirely limited to Canterlot and Ponyville instead of all of Equestria that still lived Tirek. Everything that has been implied in the past episodes of Daring Do puts her squarely in the Indiana Jones/Lara Croft levels of crazy not high fantasy world they actually exist in where dragons are known if "rare" species, bears bigger than buildings and a minotaur once sucked the magic out of every citizen presumably including Quibble Pants?
  • No, Tirek was specifically mentioned to only suck 3 or 4 cities worth of ponies. He didn't even got to Ponyville yet before climactic fight, so he presumably only targeted area around Canterlot. Then, he was beaten so fast 95% of Equestria only saw him in morning arrest news, if that.
• Following the above his gripes seem to hinge on what is or isn't believable including a sixty foot drop into a river. Assuming Granny Smith isn't lying she once fell six stories into a pie pan filled with water. In fact when she tries to recreated on the Flim Flam Tonic it's not treated by the crowd as something that is flat out impossible, it's treated by Applejack specifically (correctly most likely) as something her ancient arthritic grandmother shouldn't be attempting. Ponies in general seem to be Made of Iron.
• Why is Dr. Caballeron wanting to take the treasure treated as a villainous goal? It's the same goal Daring Doo had. They both wanted to find the treasure, he just wanted to sell it (which I'm pretty sure would be legal) while she wanted to take it to a museum. I know he's a bad guy, but this particular goal seems like Designated Evil.
  • Because selling it may be legal but it's still 'evil'. It's a call back to the Indiana Jones/Lara Croft characters Daring Do is clearly based on. Ancient Artifacts belong in museums where everybody can appreciate them, not locked away in the vault of some evil rich guy who doesn't even care about it other than to be able to boast about the value of his collection. So yes, he is a designated villain, and given even he admits his plots may be a bit overblown it's clearly not an accident on the part of the writers.
  • Given how he tends to get away (and in his first appearance, even got the gold), he's clearly not supposed to be Big Bad level evil. Given Quibble's respect for his motives, he might have even had a halfway decent point before 'beat up and kidnap my rivals' became a common strategy for him.
  • Those artifacts might not just be display pieces. Given the setting, it's entirely possible that at least some of them have magical properties that would make them legitimately dangerous in the wrong hooves.
• Why did Daring even bother with the "A.K. Yearling" disguise? With all the cosplayers, she can easily go as herself.
  • Because the fans came here to see A.K. Yearling.
• As both Rainbow Dash and Quibble Pants point out, Daring Do dodged "a score of arrows" and later "fended off a barrage of arrows", but it's never stated how many arrows actually hit her pith helmet. How did they both arrive at a score (twenty) for the number of arrow holes in the helmet?
  • Daring probably made emphasis on those arrow impacts in the book itself. Even if she didn't give a precise number, a dedicated fanboy would do his/her own calculations based on the book's descriptions.
  • In Rainbow Dash's case, the hat Daring has could have been the same one she had throughout all her adventures as a "lucky charm" and she may have counted the holes when she first met her in "Daring Don't".
• When Daring Do rescues Quibble and Rainbow, she's holing onto a vine with one hoof and Quibble the other. How are they holding Rainbow?
• So it never occurred to anyone that Rainbow Dash might be the cyan pony with the rainbow mane on the cover of Daring Do and the Ring of Destiny? You could argue that she was cosplaying as that character but she was already cosplaying as Daring Do and was seen wandering around the convention floor out of costume too. Even if Dash and her friends are the only ones who really know Daring Do is real, in the very least the other con-goers would assume she was connected to A.K. Yearling. It gets even more glaring when Quibble mentions Ring of Destiny as the last book that was "even remotely within the realm of the possible", suggesting that even he doesn't recognize Rainbow from the cover.
  • Maybe she is considered The Scrappy In-Universe.
    • Scrappy means unpopular, not unknown.

6.15 The Cart Before The Ponies

• Okay, I'll just say it: WHO BUILDS A RACE TRACK WITH AN EIGHT-WAY INTERSECTION?! I mean, granted they were limited by the layout of Ponyville, but still, what did they think was going to happen? You'd think that they took their race track design from Hot Wheels!
  • [1]
  • The joke was clearly lost on the racers. Besides, even Hot Wheels isn't that blatant about its Artistic License.
• Why didn't Cheerilee disqualify Applejack, Rainbow and Rarity? They were clearly violating the rules.
  • That was probably the intention behind "The grown-up should sit this one out" amendment for the re-race, as the Crusaders were clearly innocent. Though that begs the question as to why none of the other grown ponies minded that they were basically punished too when they were just as innocent.
• How are the cars supposed to be propelled? They're clearly intended to be soapbox racers but Rainbow's, Rarity's and Applejacks cars can move like if they had an engine.
• So...did Derpy ever apologize to Rarity?
  • For what? She won an award for her work, that's not something to apologise for.

6.16 28 Pranks Later

• Where did all of Dash's Character Development go in this episode? Even back in Season One she wasn't the type of pony to pull pranks on Fluttershy. Shy may have gotten some Character Development herself, but she's still not the type to enjoy being scared and Dash should know that.
  • This episode did show that Dash was a bit more thoughtless about who she pranked and how than Pinkie is. Even back in season one, Pinkie actually had to talk Dash out of pranking Fluttershy, and Dash even seemed disappointed about it. It seems likely that when Dash started her solo prank binge, she just got so caught up in it that she didn't even think about the previous incident.
• A minor question to Ponyville's Zombie Apocalypse prank on Rainbow Dash: How did everypony get the discolored appearances and unkempt manes and tails in order to pull the prank off? Did Twilight have knowledge of a spell to pull it off after Pinkie warned her of Rainbow's joke cookies? Did Twilight ask Rarity and the other unicorns in Ponyville, like Lyra, to aid with the spell as well?
  • The main reason for this is that the instant Rainbow confesses and looks up at everypony again upon hearing Pinkie speak normally, they all have returned to their brighter, colorful appearances with properly groomed manes and tails in the span of the few seconds when Rainbow had her eyes closed in terror of being overrun by them. Only a magic spell could pull something like that off in the span of a few seconds when the victim is not looking or has their eyes shut.
  • Another possibility is that we're seeing them, at least partially, from Rainbow's point of view, and she perceived them as looking unwell until they confirmed they weren't, at which point she could clearly see that fact.
• Why was Rarity so annoyed? Dash's prank on her involved giving her a huge cake, and then another cake after that, both of which were delicious (if Sweetie Belle's taste buds can be trusted). The worst Dash seems to have done to Rarity is possibly hidden her sewing machine. Compared to Applejack waking up in a pig pen or Celestia getting buried up to her neck in scrolls, a giant cake might as well be an early birthday present.
  • A couple factors, I think. First, Rarity is often very busy between running Carousel Boutique and also helping out the Cutie Mark Crusaders - Dash's prank would only serve to make her tight schedule even tighter between having to put together a new uniform for Sweetie Belle and cleaning up the mess on her fabric materials and workspace. Second, part of the reason the others save Pinkie were so annoyed at Rainbow Dash was that she wasn't taking the victims' feelings into consideration on whether they'd be able to laugh along with her - some of Dash's pranks were actually pretty funny and impressive (at least in my opinion) if they were in a metaphorical vacuum, but the way the intervention in Twilight's castle ended did not leave them feeling as though she was going to do them with good intentions.
• Pinkie pie freaked out at the prospect of pranking Fluttershy in "Griffon the Brush Off." Why was she in total defense of it in the meeting room in this episode? After all, the prank was much more severe than a squirting duck!
  • It's possible that since it's been 5 1/2 seasons of Character Development they probably thought she could bear a prank now.
  • Maybe, but once it's demonstrated that she clearly cannot yet, her principle should come into play. I'm not saying she has to be harsh about it, a simple, gentle "Hey, Dashie, I know you thought Fluttershy would be able to handle a prank now, and I totally get why. But since she definitely can't, maybe you should apologize?" would have sufficed, but she's seemingly added " ...unless I think you should be able to handle it, in which case your actual feelings don't matter" to her previous principle.
• In a town that is constantly under attack by powerful forces, is this prank really wise? The most likely scenario would have been Rainbow Dash attacking the "zombies", or summoning someone that would attack the "zombies". Besides, if the town ever gets attacked by actual zombies, Rainbow Dash won't warn anyone until it's too late since she'll think it's another prank.
  • Well, they have been shown not to think things through properly (Twilight trying to steal a pearl from another kingdom even though her friends had a way to get it honestly, Fluttershy and Applejack and Rainbow Dash all eating the cake they were explicitly not to and that Pinkie Pie worked hard to protect), so, maybe they're just all idiots.
    • Dash didn't think they were zombies or something to fight, she thought they were just sick. She was trying to keep the cookies away from the others. If she thought there was actual danger she would have just flown away at the end instead of trying to place herself between the others and the pile of cookies.
• Everypony else had good reason to be annoyed at Rainbow Dash, but why was Rarity so mad? Dash's prank on her basically amounted to giving her a giant cake, then giving her another cake after that, both were delicious according to Sweetie Belle.
  • What became of her actual sewing machine (which is certainly vital for her business)? Not to mention the fact that the sewing machine cake breaking probably ruined the fabric she was using. Both might appear to be small potatoes compared to the others, sure, but for a fashionista businessmare Drama Queen, that's gonna hurt.
  • Dash broke into her shop/home, stole her sister's uniform, tampered with her fabrics and equipment, made a big mess with her cake prank and likely ruined a bunch of fabric while doing it plus rarity is going to have to clean up the mess.

6.17 Times They are a Changeling

• Why do Cadence and Shining Armor think that a changeling can't be good? They were at Cranky and Matilda's wedding where there was a changeling that was good. I'm pretty sure they would have noticed it given how it would stick out.
  • Well, an army of them did kind of crash their wedding. Not to mention that they now have a foal, and the Crystal Empire has been overflowing with love since the Crystalling of Flurry Heart; in other words, exactly the kind of environment that would attract Changelings in general if not Chrysalis herself. Their behavior was extreme, yes, but it was also understandable given their past experiences and the current circumstances. And as far as Kevin being at the wedding goes? He was sitting in the back, so it's possible they might not have seen him. Also, he never did anything to establish himself as a "good" Changeling as he was just sitting there for the 3 seconds or so he was on screen. Also the fillies that were sitting by him were terrified from his presence alone, so it's likely the reaction towards him would've been no different than the initial reaction towards Thorax, no matter if Kevin was "good" or not.
  • I think that was less about them believing the changeling is "good" and more about there being an implicit truce during the wedding. There is such a thing as "Outside this room we're enemies, but we're not going to fight in here."
• Is this another case of just how poor Equestrian communications seem to be? Because even ignoring Kevin the idea that a Changeling could be good is considerably less absurd than the idea that Discord could be and despite his initial appearance and his betrayal nobody at the Gala seemed to be half as freaked out as these ponies were by a single Changeling.
  • I think it's less Poor Communication Kills and more Fantastic Racism. Even so, the difference between Discord and the Changelings is that Discord is just one guy. He's a very powerful being, but if he acts out of line then Celestia and/or the Mane Six can simply turn him back to stone. On the other hand, there's thousands of Changelings, and Chrysalis was able to defeat Celestia herself in combat (granted she was super charged by the love from Shining Armor, but still). Also, if it was Chrysalis herself who came seeking friendship and gave off no hostile vibes, then maybe things would've been different as Cadance and Shining Armor may have been willing to at least open diplomatic talks with her. But Thorax is a drone, and up till now the ponies have had no reason to believe that the drones were anything but mindless peons to Chrysalis (in fact, Thorax's dialogue seems to suggest that "good" Changelings are very much the exception instead of the norm for the time being). So in the end, while the ponies still harbored a significant amount of prejudice against the Changelings which clouded their judgement, it was still easier to accept that Discord (who had Fluttershy to vouch for him and can still be swiftly dealt with if things go south) was less of a threat than a Changeling drone.
  • His instinctive hissing probably don't help, either; it seems to be a hostile gesture, and if the pony (or dragon) reacts too quickly for him to explain it, or just doesn't believe the explanation, well, he's alone again. Or possibly dead.
• On a minor note, where did Flash Sentry (pony version) run off too?
  • He's hiding from the bronies.
  • As the guards are on high alert due to reports of a changeling's presence, with Shining Armor himself donning his full general's uniform, Flash was likely on duty elsewhere.
• Why does Spike never mention that Thorax saved his life? I'd think that'd help a lot in establishing trustworthiness.
  • He probably didn't think that far ahead.
• How does everybody who's not Twilight know what a hand is?
  • From knowing about non-human species that have hands. Tirek had them, so there's at least one race that does. Plus there are probably monkeys and apes around.

6.20 Viva Las Pegasus

• The Redemption Rejection and defied Heel–Face Turn could easily be the Flim-Flam brothers' single greatest sign of honesty. They clearly knew it was in their blood to be flimflammers and thought they'd be drawing eyebrows if they tried anything else. But hey, at least the patrons are paying for their own fun.
• Gladmane's Gaslighting scheme could have just as easily backfired on him. Instead of simply arguing due to the lies Gladmane fed them, the performers could have just quit and left altogether rather than continue working with each other, leaving Gladmane with no shows at all.
  • He didn't just demonize the other performer, he also made a point of gaining everyone's trust and friendship at the same time. If they tried to quit, he could just guilt trip them into staying.
• Flim and Flam taking over Gladmane's resort might not turn out to be such a "win" for them after all. They've only ever dealt in small-time scams up until now. Running a major resort, with employees to manage, attractions to maintain, and hundreds of patrons to keep happy every day, something Gladmane was clearly able to do regardless of his character, might be too much for them to handle in the long run.
  • It seems to be doing just fine two seasons later, and is stated to still be running later that year. They've apparently figured it out. Maybe they did a Hazy-Feel Turn such that they know that they'd do better to not swindle all their guests all of the time but still can't resist partaking in the occasional scam.

6.22 P.P.O.V. (Pony Point of View)

• If they were in such shallow water when the yacht sank, how did it sink completely? For that matter, how could it even pull in to dock? A yacht that big has a deep hull, and it needs a large keel and rudder to be seaworthy. For that matter, if the water was that shallow, how was the Bunyip able to swim underneath it? And how was the storm able to get a swell that high?
  • Given how all 3 of them exaggerated things in their stories, exaggerating the size of the boat they used wouldn't be far-fetched. Indeed, if the boat they use for their second voyage at the end of the episode is the same one used for the first (it's never made clear), this is very much the case.
• Why does a winged pony need a life jacket?
  • If Twilight's fur and (if they're not waterproof like ducks) feathers soak up too much water, she might have difficulty flying out because of the extra weight. Besides, being Crazy-Prepared isn't too out of character for her.
• Why couldn't Applejack have just told Twilight what really happened on the boat? Really egregious considering she's the Element of Honesty.
  • Just because she represents honesty, doesn't mean she's always right. She didn't exactly lie, she told what she thought was the truth. Plus, to be fair, her version seems to be the one closest to what really happened.
• How could a sea monster even get in touch with cucumber naturally, let alone have it as favourite food?

6.24 Top Bolt

• How is it that Spitfire never realized Vapor Trail was helping Sky Stinger? As a long-time instructor for the Wonderbolts Academy (and skilled Wonderbolt herself), you'd think she'd be able to notice something like that. Twilight figured out what was going on in mere seconds, yet Spitfire never caught on at all. Not to mention it can get pretty blatant sometimes, like when Vapor was right underneath Sky during the latter's flipping loop—Spitfire must have rolled a lot of ones.
  • Spitfire also didn't notice that Lightning Dust was endangering other students back in an earlier episode. Let's be honest. Spitfire is a pretty louzy instructor.
  • It's been shown that Spitfire doesn't really monitor the training, she delivers the verbal part and assigns tasks but other ponies actually watch them do it, and nopony really watches if they're just flying laps. As for why those others missed it, they were likely distracted by watching so many ponies and looking at their actual performance, Dash and Twilight were specifically looking for a problem so were looking closely at what was going on.

6.25 & 6.26 To Where and Back Again

• How can the changeling disguised as Twilight, smell a hidden Starlight and Trixie? He and the other changelings in their real forms are noseless, and they don't have nostrils.
  • First, it's possible that the artstyle just doesn't do their noses justice and the changelings do have nostrils, just not prominent ones. Second, even without external nostrils, they can still have olfactory organs that work through their mouths.
• You have Twilight and Starlight carrying books. Seeing either could lift all of the boxes easily, and there are two of them, why is Spike still carrying anything? Never mind what looks like the heaviest load? Is he a contractual child-slave dragon or something?
  • Spike has shown in the past that he is eager to help even when he doesn't need to. He likely insisted on carrying so much.
• So, why are the inhabitants of = village so eager to see Starlight again? Do they miss her telling them what to do and/or the community rules they had? It sounds weird that a squad of ponies with abilities rivaling main six would want Starlight to decide every detail for them, even things that are apparently their talents, unless of course Starlight *did* have a point and life under her was better in some way...
  • Its probably not that they thought life under her was better, they simply recognize that she is smart and organized enough to build and lead a village and thus wanted her input. Recall too that they considered her a friend for a long time, and renewed it when she apologized, they mostly probably just wanted to reconnect.
• How in Equestria did the changelings kidnap all the princesses with apparent ease and nopony noticing? It took a supercharged Chrysalis just to handle Celestia last time. Even if Chrysalis personally did the kidnapping one by one it still seems off that she could take them without a big fight occurring. Unless she had some way of transporting them directly to her land and thus depowering them, but we are given zero explanation. The recap page suggests that pieces of the throne could have been used to depower the ponies, but again we are given no indication this is possible (and indeed that the throne being broken renders it powerless would imply broken pieces of the throne have no power).
  • We're very much encouraged not to ask, but I can think of a few methods. Shapeshifting into someone they know, slapping some magic draining artifact on them and hitting them over the head with a candlestick would work well enough, as would simply chloroforming them while they're asleep (most of them seem to have been taken at night).
  • About the aforementioned "and indeed that the throne being broken renders it powerless would imply broken pieces of the throne have no power" part: It's possible that the material's range of effect is affected by mass and/or quantity (i.e.: A large throne = Field Power Effect, but a small piece = Man of Kryptonite).
    • Except that Luna contacting Starlight through her Dream Walker powers suggest that they were not using them in that instance. If they could use them at all, why not here? How did the Changelings who abducted her even show up in the dream, on that matter?
    • Presumably, they hadn't caught up with her quite yet (or she'd temporarily escaped), and/or the Dreamscape simply has A Wizard Did It space and time. Either way, the fact that they were able to interfere like that at all heavily implies the presence of some kind of Anti-Magic (e.g., throne shards(?)).
  • Keep in mind, we were never told exactly how Chrysalis managed to abduct Cadance and take her place with nopony being the wiser back in Season 2. It's possible it was some kind of sneak attack, as Luna contacting Starlight via her dreams seems to hint the Changelings at least kidnapped the royals at night. But other than that, we simply don't know what happened. The whole thing is basically a Noodle Incident that we're only catching the aftermath of.
  • Well we know based on dialogue that Chrysalis most likely stayed safe in her castle during all of this. When the Mane 6 imposters report in they tell her about having taken down Twilight, Chrysalis responds that she's just gotten word about Celestia and Luna. She might have taken care of Cadence and Flurry personally but given the timing of Thorax's appearance that seems unlikely. While it's definitely best not to ask the easiest answer is that there were just some damn good sneak attacks. It doesn't seem particularly far-fetched that a coordinated kingdom-wide surprise attack could defeat a princess, and once they are in those pods the anti-magic throne isn't actually required. Then you leave behind a copy. Additionally Chrysalis' may have had a Plan B. I can't imagine Cadence and Shining Armor would be difficult to capture once you had Flurry Heart as a hostage.
  • We have a sort-of answer from the official mobile app. You ready for this? The changelings sent a fake present to Pinkie Pie, abducted her, and then threw a party to capture the others. Yep.
    • It makes little to no sense. Mind you, in "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2" the Mane Six curb-stomped an entire horde of changelings and it took a ten times larger horde to finally bring them down. How many changelings would have to partake in such ambush to subdue Twilight & Co.? How would you just conceal an entire army?
    • Who says they brought or needed an army? Maybe they drugged the food or drink at the party. Maybe they used Pinkie as a hostage. Just because they can take on hoards doesn't make them vulnerable if caught off-guard. Twilight asking what happen suggest they never even had a chance to put up a fight.
• If they kidnapped those who'd threaten their plans why'd they kidnap Spike? He was useless during their first invasions, literally standing around the captured Cadence and brainwashed Shining doing jack. And why kidnap Flurry Heart? She's too young to get suspicious or do anything. And if they somehow deemed them threats, why did they ignore seemingly bigger threats like Discord?
  • They weren't kidnapped as a threat, they state it was because they were so loved which they wanted to feed on. Ridding them as threat was an incidental bonus. Discord, Starlight and Trixie weren't loved enough in-universe to warrant replacing for that, only if they became suspicious of them which they never got a chance to do.
• Since the changelings were apparently able to subdue the Mane Six and Princesses offscreen, why did they wait four seasons to do so?
  • Information and opportunity most likely. The Crystal Empire had shown after, and then threats like Tirek and the Everfree Forest were happening, they wanted to make sure they were ready and could also avoid losing Ponies to steal love from.
• How did Chrysalis expect her plan to work? You'd think that ponies would notice that the behaviors of the replaced Royal Family and Friendship Council were off, much like Starlight did. This is especially true, since that was the very thing that started to lead to Chrysalis's downfall the first time when Twilight noticed Princess Cadance (really a disguised Chrysalis) not acting like how Twilight remembered her.
  • Chrysalis Didn't Think This Through? A staple weakness in the Changeling's powers is that those familiar with the impersonated pony can notice O.O.C. Is Serious Business with them. Then again, what ended up defeating her in the end was Thorax, so by all means she would have succeeded if Spike hadn't helped the Crystal Empire accept him.
  • Honestly, Chrysalis had every reason to believe her plan would work and it nearly did; she was just operating on outdated information. Last time around she learned the Equestrian military are absolute jobbers who go down in about 30 seconds to any threat (in a state of readiness they lost the capital in no time at all), that their nations security is poor to nonexistent (both invasions she's just walked in unimpeded and taken out whatever members of the royal family she wants with zero effort), that the ponies aren't too quick on the uptake (Twilight was the only one suspicious of "Cadance" last time despite Chrysalis making no effort to act even remotely like Cadance), and that the only threats to her occupation force are the Mane Six and possibly Princess Cadance (Celestia lost to Chrysalis in under a minute, power-boost or not that's pathetic, and Luna just couldn't be bothered to participate or something). Take out the Mane Six and Cadance to remove the threat, then take out Celestia and Luna to take control of the nation's government, and even if everyone else found out she was in control there's really nothing they could do about it. Just... in between learning all that and her next invasion Starlight, Trixie, and Discord showed up and were around to fight back, and even they only managed to have any success because they had the defector Thorax to give them information on how to beat her and convince her own army to desert.
• How could they impersonate the Celestia and Luna when it came time to raise the sun? Their cover would be blown by the literal end of the night. If they meant to spring whatever it was they were planning before that, why bother impersonating them and just spring it as soon as they were captured?
  • A single ponies love was enough for Chrysalis to overpower Celestia, a whole populations worth would be plenty to empower them enough to do so. Note that it had gone from night to day by the time the Princesses were freed but before they had a chance to do anything.
• Changeling magic is strong enough to block Discord, the most magically powerful individual in the series. If the changelings had the ability to make such artifacts and knew of such a highly potent magic-absorbing material, why didn't they use them sooner, like during "A Canterlot Wedding", when it would have resulted in an easy victory?
  • If simply destroying the throne allows everyone to use their magic again, it probably means that the stone only works at large sizes, too large for the changelings to have carried all the way to Canterlot.
• Given that it's carved from a stone that "soaks up outside magic", how does it not absorb changeling magic? If designed to absorb certain types of magic (such as that of ponies), how would changelings be able to design it to absorb Discord's unique chaos magic (and how would they have a chance to test it)?!
  • It might be similar to how green Kryptonite, Superman's weakness, either doesn't hurt Bizarro or actually makes Bizarro stronger.
  • It absorbs all magic except changeling magic. It's changeling magic that gets treated specially, not any other kind. It has the equivalent of a band-stop filter in electrical engineering. There is one specific "frequency" of magic (changeling magic) that gets stopped from being absorbed, and all other frequencies pass through into the stone.
• Chrysalis's throne gets its Anti-Magic effect from the material it's made from. The gang's plan is to smash the throne, but wouldn't the throne's smashed bits still be made from the same magic-absorbing material, and therefore still have their magic-absorbing effect? The only way the plan could work is if they found a way to move all the broken throne bits far away from the hive.
  • It can be assumed (especially since Thorax basically said so) that destroying the throne would nullify the effect. Presumably it needs to be intact in order to actually work.
  • It's possible that it's a material that has a larger radius the more that's gathered into a single form. When it shattered, the radius was too small to negate any magic because unless you were trying to levitate a shard, the magic was too big to fully negate.
• How has no Changeling in history simply accidentally stumbled onto at least what Thorax was on? Plot relevance aside either his transformation should have happened sooner or the rest of the hive later. Clearly even if you stuck with the safer option of not openly admitting to being a Changeling and just infiltrated a pony settlement as a random pony you could feed so much easier by sneaking in and not being douches. Now that we know Changelings are fully sentient and capable of love if they did infiltrate at least a few of them would get into deep and develop friendships.
  • Keep in mind that we really don't know anything about Changelings. Maybe they only stay in one place or use one disguise for a short time. Other than that, I imagine that essentially living as a secret agent literally all the time would lead to stunted/repressed emotional connection abilities.
  • In order to pursue this path Thorax had to abandon the ways of the Hive and leave the hive entirely. As a result of this the other changelings were hostile to his presence and Chrysalis nearly killed him just to set an example. Any Changeling that started down this path likely found themselves exiled and dead before they were able to transform.
• Continued from above, does this imply that none of the Changelings prior to Thorax simply telling them to love (which really shouldn't work) had any? That Chrysalis doesn't love her children and they don't love her? That none of them have any relationships within their family that could be counted a friendship or even love?
  • It's probably easier to see Thorax's command less as "Love!" and more as "Let yourselves love." That is, they always had the ability for emotions (Thorax and the one at the wedding prove that) but they repressed them. There was probably also a healthy dose of Fantastic Racism on both sides, likely encouraged by Chrysalis.
  • They all had love inside them as that is what they ate after all. What they did that was different was to share/release every bit of it willingly. Until Thorax showed that one could transform by doing this, the changelings would likely have equated releasing all the love in them with suicide (just as its indicated that changelings can be executed by having all the love in them forcibly drained).
  • It's important to note that even Thorax didn't transform just by making a friend. He got shiny wings and stopped being hungry, but that's it. It's possible there have been other changelings who accomplished this. But Thorax only transformed when he actively gave all his stored love away. That's something that no changeling would think of doing unless they were suicidal or willing to die to sustain another changeling.
• How does a race fundamentally foreign to love simply turn it on? Even as MLP willing suspension of belief goes this is asking a bit much.
  • See the questions directly above, about Changeling relationships. Basically, they didn't "turn it on"; they just stopped actively repressing it.
• How the heck did Discord not know about the changeling throne rock. He is literally the closest thing we have to an outright god in MLP, but somehow he had no idea the changelings had this. If there was something like this then that would mean that besides the element it is literally the only thing in Equestria that can stop Discord. MACGUFFIN aside it doesn't make ay sense. But this also means that chaotic magic and the Elements of Harmony, as well as the Crystal heart, and the power of Love, which are the strongest things in Equestria can be stopped by being 10ft from an unexplained rock.
  • We don't know for certain that it would the Elements which are explicitly more powerful than Discord and Love appears to be more of a raw energy, even Changelings are seen wielding it to great effect but the easiest answer is the Crystal Empire is way off the beaten path. In 'Keep Calm but Remember Discord' it's revealed that he has his own chaos dimension that he spends time in when he's not with us and he probably only goes places where there are people to screw with. It's worth remembering we don't have a great idea of how large Chrysalis' anti-magic barrier is, only that it's less than a day's walk from those cliffs. When measured against the entire planet, continent. . .whatever landmass they are on one city that Discord cannot function in and we don't even know when the throne was completed/moved there could be incredibly easy to overlook.
  • Why would Discord know about it? He's not everywhere at once. There is no creature in Equestria that can claim omniscience. And the Throne works by draining all magic except changeling magic. It makes perfect sense in the context of the universe it's in. Discord's power is based on magic; it's a thing he can be robbed of, as we have already seen when Tirek absorbed it. Yes, the Throne is a plot contrivance, but it doesn't break any rules.
  • Also, who's to say the ancient black stone was even active 1000 years ago? It could have been buried somewhere and Chrysalis got it far more recently. Even if Discord was formerly well-versed in the powerful objects of Equestria, he's been out of the loop for a thousand years. He's also not the sort to study much.
    • "He's also not the sort to study much." Indeed — he's definitely clever and tricky, but he's just too much of The Hedonist to be a Cultured Badass.
• Why does Trixie suddenly have two points of light reflecting in each eye? In all her previous appearances, she had the unusual quirk of only having one. It borders on being a Red Herring since the episode involves changelings and this could be taken as a hint to the audience that this isn't the real Trixie... except it is Trixie, and there's no actual reason for this change in her appearance. What gives?
• Why do they let Chrysalis go in the end? She has tried to take over Equestria at least twice now (the comics may or may not be canon). I can't imagine it would have been that hard to stop her from escaping. Discord just had to snap his fingers, yet none of them bother to try and stop her escape?
  • Celestia's only bit of dialog in the finale saying that it is best to leave the Changeling Kingdom to the changelings could be read as implying that she wanted to let them decide what to do regarding their former queen as well as their land, despite whatever bad blood Celestia and the rest of the Royal Family and Mane Six have against Chrysalis regarding this incident and the Royal Wedding. After all, that they had gotten a new leader and started a new way of life doesn't mean they would be okay with the ponies imprisoning Chrysalis (indeed it is indicated by Starlight's words that the changelings would still accept her as a leader if she accepted the changes). Letting Chrysalis go is dangerous of course as it would give her another chance for Revenge, but it could help foster trust from the changelings regarding the ponies and thus the benefit might be seen as greater than the cost. Of course the fact that none of this is explained and that Discord went along with it without argument is another matter.