Points of Canon: S3x01-02 - The Crystal Empire

A very far reaching episode, this one.

See Aporia for my answers, once again. Since the holes in here are much bigger, I get to write more unfounded stuff. And so do you. :) I’ll try to only introduce a minimum amount of interpretation, here.

Celestia is so bloody vague, she could have just said “Buy our toys!” instead…

• Celestia’s day starts with signing a stack of paper that is some 30cm thick. That’s got to be thousands of items, if each of them is one page, and since she is signing every single one, it might well be. Unless it’s normal practice in Equestria to sign every page of a multi-page document, that’s a lot of decisions resting solely with her.
• “News from Northern Equestria!” In case we doubted that up on the map is north. See also “Southern Equestria” in Daring Done.
• “I am simply to tell you that it has returned.” Crystal Empire was deliberately kept secret, otherwise there’s no need to talk like that. Also, this particular guardspony was in the know, otherwise the tone is hard to explain.
• Celestia gasps in surprise – but then immediately issues an order. She has a plan ready, but at the same time, the actual moment it happened was unexpected.
• Notice that Celestia starts writing a letter to Twilight immediately, telling her she must come to Canterlot “at once.” However, Twilight spends hours, or possibly an entire evening dithering, plus train travel time, plus all the dithering and singing in Canterlot, while Cadance and Shining Armor are, presumably, in the city – otherwise, Celestia wouldn’t use the verb “find.” Even in the best case there’s at least a day’s gap between the arrival of Shining Armor and Cadance to the Crystal Empire and Twilight and company turning up.
• “I need the Magical Compendium volumes 1 through 36!” Notice that once she does find it, it’s a single gigantic book, rather than 36 individual books.
• “Flash cards!” Ponies know and Twilight uses flash cards.
• “Princess Celestia wants to give me some kind of exam, and you’re trying to tell me to calm down because it’s just a test?!” I wonder, did Celestia’s letter actually mention that, or did Twilight conclude this on her own?
• Explosively uprooting the library tree has to be a visual device.
• There is a stained-glass window in the throne room depicting Cadance and Shining Armor casting the love shield.
• “Princess Cadance and Shining Armor are already there.” Which at least settles that by the time Twilight arrived to Canterlot, Cadance and Shining Armor have already arrived to the Crystal Empire. That was fast.
• “The Empire’s magic is powerful. It cannot fall again, my sister.” Luna’s statement clearly implies that Crystal Empire under Sombra is a threat all by itself. See also “Even my knowledge of the Empire is limited. But what I do know is that it contains a powerful magic.”
• “She will succeed at her task. And when she does, we’ll know that she is that much closer to being ready.” I wonder if any interesting interpretations based on assuming that “she” is Cadance, rather than Twilight, exist.
• The whole presentation involves a crystal, which Celestia keeps under a glass dome. The actual significance of that object is not explained.
• “One thousand years ago, King Sombra, a unicorn whose heart was black as night, took over the Crystal Empire.” Notice that if Celestia is being particularly literal, this would have happened after Nightmare Moon, rather than before. The subsequent flashback-exposition-presentation depicts both her and Luna, anyway.
• The flashback shows crystal ponies in chains and the Empire covered in Sombra’s black crystal. Notice that neither chains nor black crystal are there by the time Twilight arrives. Deciding at which particular point do these things disappear and how essentially determines how your interpretation of the Crystal Empire works.
• “He was ultimately overthrown, turned to shadow, and banished to the ice of the arctic north. But not before he was able to put a curse upon the Empire. A curse that caused it to vanish into thin air.” The word “ultimately” implies that the presentation is already a short version of the actual events and might not be literal. It’s certainly as vague as it gets.
• Notice also that if Celestia is being literal about being “banished to the ice of the arctic north,” regardless of how this happened, since the Crystal Empire has definitely returned before Shining and Cadance arrived, he would get there first, unless a royal guard detachment could hold him. If they could, there’s no reason for the episode to exist.
• “If the Empire is filled with hope and love, those things are reflected across all of Equestria. If hatred and fear take hold…” Celestia never describes what happens exactly.
• “And your Ponyville friends will join you there as well. … But Twilight, in the end, it must be you and you alone who ultimately assists Princess Cadance and Shining Armor in doing what needs to be done to protect the Empire.” Twilight does not notice the apparent contradiction: if it must be her, and her alone, why do her friends need to go at all?
• Twilight seems to have left all her bags with books and notes back in the throne room. Just thought that I’d point that out.
• “Twilight! That was fast!” We can probably assume no or very few unseen explanations took place.
• “A-minus? B-plus?” Ponies use letter-based grades – unless you assume a translation lens, then you just don’t know.
• “The square root of five hundred and forty-six is twenty-three point three six six six four two eight nine one zero nine.” See RTAC #13 Notice that Spike is actually surprised by Twilight doing that.
• Twilight shows off by teleporting four times in quick succession with pose changes – that is, she has one pose on teleporting out and a completely different one on teleporting in. And several of these are bipedal. This has a bearing on how teleportation works.
• The clock at the station shows 10:30, presumably AM. Unfortunately, that’s what this particular clock always shows…
• So why exactly are the Mane 5 here in Canterlot, anyway? If Celestia gave such orders that they are to be delivered, Applejack wouldn’t need to ask if Twilight passed the test. If they came with her, they wouldn’t be waiting at the station, but rather, somewhere closer to the venue of the presumed test. Did they come of their own volition on the next train? Pinkie’s “Are we gonna celebrate your awesomeness with Princess Celestia?” seems to imply that this is the case. So riddle me this: Did Rarity pack scarves on the off chance of a random blizzard in Canterlot, or did they come back to Ponyville to pack for the actual Crystal Empire trip? In fact, once Spike shows up carrying Rarity’s luggage, we can see it’s the usual sized stack, but notably, it’s dominated by one suitcase that is, uncharacteristically for Rarity, filled up to bursting with disarrayed clothes. Presumably they did return and Rarity had to pack very quickly.
• There is a train station next to the borders of the Crystal Empire, and it’s a dead end in a middle of nowhere. For quite a while, it was a separate puzzle why this exists, because it seemed like Crystal Empire is the only reason to have this track at all, judging from the maps. Post-season-4 maps show that this has to be an offshoot of the route that goes through Rainbow Falls towards Griffonstone.
• Most of Rarity’s luggage is apparently abandoned at the station, because everypony is running for their lives and they definitely have no chance to go back for it.
• Shining Armor is using snow goggles, implying that snow blindness is a risk around here. Which, actually, implies that the sun never rises high above the horizon at this latitude.
• “Let’s just say the Empire… isn’t the only thing that returned.” So if Sombra wasn’t packed away with the Empire, just what was stopping him from returning earlier?
• “There are things out here we really don’t want to run into after dark. … Something keeps trying to get in!” For Shining Armor to know this, he had to have spent at least a night in the Crystal Empire by that point. Likewise, the line “she hasn’t slept, barely eats” describing Cadance would make no sense otherwise. Notice, however, that Shining never utters Sombra’s name, when Twilight does.
• Sombra is capable of disabling unicorn magic, though the exact mechanics of the black crystal growth on Shining Armor’s horn are never explained. There’s also another strange thing: Shining says, “I want to help her, but my protection spell has been countered by King Sombra.” However, he has been there for at least some time by now, and his horn was only disabled immediately prior. Why didn’t he try to cast his shield before?
• Rarity is very excited to know crystal ponies exist. Trust Rarity to be the one interested in gemstones… Never mind that Crystal Ponies definitely don’t have significant physiological differences, as shown by later episodes.
• Notice that Cadance’s cutie mark is the Crystal Heart. If she’s not telling the Mane 6 about it, there has to be a reason.
• Despite expectations, crystal ponies don’t talk in Luna’s Equish, and there’s no sign of translation magic being used throughout the episode. Yeah, they’re my argument for Equish not changing significantly in a thousand years.
• “But I… can’t seem to remember anything before King Sombra came to power. And I don’t want to remember anything about the time he ruled over us.” I.e. the memory block extends on any information before Sombra’s rule, but not on anything that has actually been going on while he was in power. This distinction is quite important for some of the interpretations.
• “Have we really been gone a thousand years? … It feels like it was just yesterday.” Wherever the Crystal Empire spent all this time, the crystal ponies did not experience it, and it’s not part of the above mental block.
• Pinkie uses a new stealth suit, which turns up a few times in later episodes. Which covers half her face but leaves the cutie mark open. That’s also the first time Pinkie’s night vision goggles appear – orange lenses with an undefined purple lens between the eyes. Notably, crystal ponies instantly label her a spy. Even Pinkie lampshades this: “How did they know? Ah! Must have noticed my night vision goggles.” However, for Pinkie to be correct, night vision goggles would have to have been a technology available a thousand years ago, so I suspect it’s probably the stealth suit instead. Nevertheless, it would still imply the use of such clothing for infiltration a thousand years ago…
• Pinkie has a Fluttershy suit. An effective one. One wonders if she has any more of those.
• The library has griffon statues around the entrance. Few people bothered explaining why. Notably, the next building over has a pegasus statue on it, even though crystal pegasi did not appear until many episodes later.
• Amethyst Maresbury is mysteriously in the library, but is not sure she actually works there. And I think she’s the only pony to wear her tail in a bun.
• The “History of the Crystal Empire” book has its title written in what looks like letters, but does not match any other script seen in the show.
• “According to this book, it was established by their first queen and became their most important tradition.” Notice that secondary canon insists that her title was princess, rather than queen, and even later in the episode, crystal ponies immediately label Cadance “the Crystal Princess.”
• Notice that the jousting armor used by the crystal ponies does not include a saddle. Also notice that unlike the Royal Guard helmets seen in the beginning of the episode, or the Sombra slave army armor seen in The Cutie Re-Mark when the guard takes his helmet off, crystal pony jousting helmets do not come with a crest – instead of it, there’s a slit where the wearer is supposed to stick their own mane.
• Rarity sings “They flew a flag of many hues” but actually, by the time Twilight mentions the “Crystal Kingdom anthem,” the flag shown has at most three. Also notice that “Crystal Kingdom” and “Crystal Empire” are treated as interchangeable.
• “They had a petting zoo with tiny ewes” And that’s the last we ever see of crystal ewes. Even berries return, but not the ewes.
• No matter what you say, setting up the entire fair, even in a purely symbolic fashion, had to have taken most of a day.

• “The last page of the book mentioned a Crystal Heart as the faire’s centerpiece, so I used my magic to cut one out of a crystal block.”

  • Twilight knows spells suitable for stone carving.
  • Twilight sucks at stone carving. In fact, it looks like she broke the thing halfway through making it, and had to use Scotch tape. Where did she even get the tape?
  • The book contained no other details on the Heart because everypony knows what it is and why. Otherwise, it would be impossible for Sombra to censor it by merely tearing out one page.
• At least one of the crystal ponies is holding the cob of corn with their hoof while walking. You don’t see this behavior particularly often. Notice that the moment she remembers about the Heart, she drops the corn, and it scatters, leaving no sign of the cob.
• The mere mention that the Crystal Faire is on is sufficient to get many crystal ponies to a substantially brighter state, which matches their normal non-crystal state seen in later episodes. Others spontaneously recover upon remembering about the Crystal Heart. General memory recovery is tightly coupled to recovering memories of the Crystal Heart: “The whole purpose of the Crystal Faire is to lift the spirits of the Crystal Ponies, so the light within them can power the Crystal Heart, so that the Empire can be protected! I do work at the library!”
• None of the crystal ponies appear to be surprised or annoyed at the Mane 6 beyond what would be warranted by their obnoxious behavior. They’re certainly no strangers to non-crystal ponies.

• “I just can’t believe you found it. King Sombra said he’d hidden it away where we would never see it again!”

  • Sombra did interact with the crystal ponies for a sufficient time for such a statement to exist.
  • Remembering the Heart restores the crystal ponies, which is why Sombra made sure they could not. But above, a crystal pony said that memories of Sombra’s reign were not affected. How exactly are these statements reconciled?
• Most of the sky seen from inside the Crystal Empire is essentially painted on: It’s surrounded by mountains which are not actually visible until the shield drops.
• Whatever spell Cadance casts to reestablish the shield does not look anything like the expanding shield that she cast together with Shining in A Canterlot Wedding, nor like the spell Shining cast on his own to renew it.
• “I’ve been trying to figure out how I’m meant to pass Celestia’s test. Retrieving the Crystal Heart must be it.” I.e. Twilight assumes that Celestia did not tell her anything about the Heart, because it is meant to be a test. That, at least, explains why she doesn’t wonder why didn’t Cadance and Shining Armor tell her about it: Because they were in on the “test” part. Twilight might buy this explanation, but I don’t.
• It’s interesting that Twilight runs out of the castle to start her search for the Heart, and then races out into a side street. Where, exactly, did she go, and what was she looking for? When she shows up next, she’s back at the fair grounds next to the castle. She had to have some idea of where to look for a clue, otherwise this whole running part is essentially senseless. She returns to the castle eventually, anyway, and if thinking was her only option, she could have done it where she started.

• “I… just found out they’re offering face painting for the little ones.”

  • Face painting is something ponies have done at fairs since time immemorial. I honestly don’t know where’s the fun in that.
  • Actually, where are the little ones? Crystal pony foals don’t turn up until many episodes later.
• So why do crystal flugelhorns have multiple bells anyway? Also, the word “flugelhorn” clearly doesn’t mean to ponies what it means for us: their flugelhorns don’t have valves.
• “I promise I won’t lift a claw to help you.” Spike himself calls them claws, rather than hands.
• “The king would’ve been counting on the fact that nopony would dare come looking for it here. They’d have been too afraid to even try.” Twilight’s reasoning to start her search at the castle is that it would rely on the fear of Sombra himself, but notice that while her route towards the Heart starts in the throne room, the heart is actually kept as far from there as possible.
• Fluttershy’s petting zoo with ewes includes a shepherd’s staff. Which she carries in her mouth for some reason.
• “How are y’all feelin’? Havin’ a good time?” “The best I’ve had in over a thousand years!” Well, good enough to make jokes about what obviously was a traumatic experience. Notice that every crystal pony seems to know they’ve been out of time for a thousand years, otherwise, the joke stands little chance of getting uttered.
• “I sure would like to see it before the ceremony. It’s been such a long time.” Despite the above joke, I’m pretty sure this has to be interpreted to mean that a substantial period of time had to have passed between the Heart being hidden and the Crystal Empire being shuffled out of time.
• “Bet you’d like to cool off with a little Crystal Empire nectar!” That drink never came up again.
• “These Crystal Ponies are more curious than a cat!” Which means that “Curiosity killed the cat” is a proverb for ponies too, doesn’t it?
• While Twilight is searching, she lifts and looks under a unicorn bust sculpture. There are actually a few of these. Notice that neither the haircut nor the general skull shape match any known representation of Amore – who had a body type more similar to Celestia than anyone else – and we have yet to see a living crystal unicorn in primary canon.
• “Not a claw, Spike. Celestia’s orders!” I’ll just leave this phrase here.
• Whatever spell Twilight casts on the crystal to open the door is later referred to as “dark magic” in FIENDship is Magic #2. See also the “alicorn magic” in Princess Twilight Sparkle.
• “That was a little trick Celestia taught me.” Notice that we never saw any actual teaching on screen, just Celestia casting, apparently, the same spell exactly once.
• Twilight drops a crystal shard down the well, and hears the sound of it impacting in about seven seconds. This should result in the depth of the well of about 200m, far deeper than it has any right to be in normal space – especially considering the parabolic chamber below the castle where the Heart goes.
• Twilight dropping down this much ladder would surely kill pretty much anyone. Notice that she catches herself in telekinesis and floats above the floor for at least a second, before teleporting herself to an upright position, instead of simply turning herself over.
• The door doesn’t just move around the bottom of the well, it also crushes crystals to establish its new position.
• Notice that Twilight’s “worst fear” at this point is explicitly failing the test and losing Celestia’s respect. Not, say, losing her friends. At the same time, for Spike, it’s being rejected by Twilight.
• Notice that the jousting armor has to be local, and includes holes for wings. It was quite a while before we saw any crystal pegasi.
• Just how the hell did Berry Punch end up in the jousting stadium, I have no idea, but there she is among the audience, the only non-crystal pony there – and the only non-crystal pony in the entire Empire beside Shining, Cadance and the Mane 6.
• Someone yells “Bravo, Knight Rainbow Dash!” Notice that the primary canon didn’t use the word “knight” to refer to anything all the way until Dungeons and Discord after that.
• Twilight uses a gravity reversal spell to slide up the staircase, but notice that if she didn’t constantly point the gravity vector in a very specific direction, her acceleration vector would throw her off the staircase entirely very quickly.
• “I just made a hat out of three pieces of hay and a drinking straw!” Now, Rarity did indeed make it work. But where did she get a plastic drinking straw? This is important for dating plastic chemistry.
• Whatever the actual trap around the Crystal Heart is, Sombra’s horn lights up when Twilight triggers it, implying that some conscious action might be required from him to activate it. The trap is teleport-proof – the moment Twilight teleports out, the trap immediately teleports her back inside.
• “You have to be the one who brings the Heart to Princess Cadance! If you don’t, you’ll fail Celestia’s test!” Actually, I suspect that Spike is literally right, and Celestia hoped that Twilight was the one hailed as the hero of Crystal Empire and not Spike.
• I do wonder when exactly did Applejack and Rarity retreat to the balcony, but that’s where they turn up next.
• The shield dissipates completely simultaneously with the aura over Cadance’s horn, suggesting she has been powering it the entire time even if she wasn’t exactly casting the spell. Notice that it takes Sombra at most minutes to cover the entire castle in black crystal.
• I wonder why does Sombra solidify as he approaches the Heart.
• The infamous wife-throwing actually requires Shining Armor to be pretty ridiculously strong even without magic of any kind – he has his magic sealed, remember? – since Cadance has to weigh over a hundred kilograms.
• “Behold! The Crystal Princess!” The important bit, however, is that some of the muttering immediately before that phrase is definitely “who is that?” I wonder, whether they were referring to Spike or Cadance herself, because, if the crystal ponies don’t even know who Cadance is by this point, well…
• The streets of the Crystal Empire are clearly meant as a conductive system – when Cadance says “The Crystal Heart has returned. Use the light and love within you to ensure that King Sombra does not.” and the crystal ponies bow before the Heart, they light up even when the rest of the crystal in the Empire does not.
• Non-crystal ponies also go crystal immediately when the Heart fires. That includes even Twilight, who was the furthest from the Heart. For her, the crystal state apparently comes with extra hair ribbons, while Rarity mysteriously acquires earrings. This isn’t even limited to ponies, as Spike goes crystal too. However, everypony except native crystal ponies loses this crystal state eventually, as they are no longer crystal when the Mane 6 are shown leaving the Empire – at the same time, the crystal ponies are still shown to be crystal. Rarity even says “I do so wish it was permanent” – and as we find out in later episodes, it’s not permanent for the crystal ponies either.
• When the beam fires into the sky and explodes, the aurora is shown propagating in the sky at a speed of about 500 m/s, give or take, in daytime – as the sky clears, it’s quite obvious that it is. The next shot shows night in Ponyville – and by extension, Canterlot, which is visible on the mountain in the same shot – with the aurora propagating, rather than just present in the sky already. We don’t know if the speed of propagation is constant, and we don’t know if my eyeball estimate is correct, because it relies on the camera focal length, which is the first victim of cartoon resolution much of the time. See RTAC #7 anyway.
• “You’ve gotta stop saving my rump like this. It’s starting to get embarrassing.” Unfortunately for Shining, it remains embarrassing pretty much forever.
• While the Mane 5 are waiting for Twilight to come back from Celestia, Rarity is fainted on the ground – notice, no fainting couch.
• By the time Twilight is talking with Celestia, a new stained-glass window depicting Spike and the Heart is already in place. This implies that these windows can change pretty rapidly – and it also implies Celestia has already gotten a full report well before Twilight returned.
• As the singing Mane 6 are leaving by train, Luna teleports in a thin book decorated with stars and a swirl. This is exactly the same flash asset as the notebook Twilight gets in Magical Mystery Cure – and yes, a thousand years ago, Star Swirl used a wire bound notebook. Wire binding has been around since no earlier than 1924 in our world – accounts differ. Also notice that it’s Luna showing it to Celestia and Celestia nodding in response, not vice versa.

A few “huh” moments I have previously not identified, hmm.

Comments

[Shrink Laureate]

• There is a stained-glass window in the throne room depicting Cadance and Shining Armor casting the love shield.

This could be significant for timing? How quickly can you make a stained-glass window (with magic)?

EDIT:

• By the time Twilight is talking with Celestia, a new stained-glass window depicting Spike and the Heart is already in place. This implies that these windows can change pretty rapidly – and it also implies Celestia has already gotten a full report well before Twilight returned.

Pretty darned fast, apparently.

[Comnislasher]

Unless it’s normal practice in Equestria to sign every page of a multi-page document, that’s a lot of decisions resting solely with her.

Don't know about important government papers but in the bank, they often demand of me to sign every damn page of contract :).

and yes, a thousand years ago, Star Swirl used a wire bound notebook

Isn't it been implied that Star Swirl know how to time-travel?

[QueenMoriarty]

Twilight Sparkle is a very silly pony, and I have definitely reached the point where I need to know where all of her demonstrably wrong assumptions about the character of her personal tutor come from.

Seriously, why? Why is Twilight so idiotic? Why does she have no clue that Celestia likes pranks, or has faith in her student, or isn't strict by any definition?

[Mitch H]

1) Crystal Empire Nectar - the reason Berry Punch is scouting the newly returned province, or just a sweet?
2) We came up with a number of theories about how Berry Punch gets around in the Canon Research Society discord, from ethanol-fume-powered-omnipresence earth pony magic to Berry Punch being yet another secret agent of Their Royal Highness's government, pathfinding for Cadance and Shining Armor. But this wasn't the last time we see her either in the Crystal Empire, or in transit back and forth. She was waiting to get on the Empire-bound train at Ponyville station in "Games Ponies Play", for instance.

[Shrink Laureate]

• Twilight drops a crystal shard down the well, and hears the sound of it impacting in about seven seconds. This should result in the depth of the well of about 200m, far deeper than it has any right to be in normal space – especially considering the parabolic chamber below the castle where the Heart goes.

Has the strength of Equestria's gravity ever been established? It generally looks roughly Earth-like, but there's a lot of wiggle room there.

[Shrink Laureate]

I have a question:

Are the crystal ponies furry **

We know that ordinary ponies are furry - just look at Snips and Snails with their fur shaved. But the smooth, shimmering effect of the crystal ponies doesn't look very furry.

So does a pony's fur disappear when the crystalline effect happens to them? How weird must that feel? "It's pretty cold up here in the frozen North, I'm glad I have this nice warm coat of fur... Gah!"

** horsey types insist it's called hair, not fur.

[Mitch H]

4668462

** horsey types insist it's called hair, not fur.

What's the distinction?

[Shrink Laureate]

4668467
Scientifically, nothing. But they insist.

[Oliver]

4668430

Isn’t it been implied that Star Swirl know how to time-travel?

It has been. However, it has never been implied that he brought any artifacts back, otherwise.

4668434

Twilight Sparkle is a very silly pony, and I have definitely reached the point where I need to know where all of her demonstrably wrong assumptions about the character of her personal tutor come from.

One obvious explanation is that Celestia had far less personal time to spend on Twilight than Twilight would require to know her better. It’s not a very good one, but that’s all we really have.

4668444

Has the strength of Equestria’s gravity ever been established? It generally looks roughly Earth-like, but there’s a lot of wiggle room there.

Not really. However, it wouldn’t absolve the whole column setup from using pseudo-space of some description: The downwards stairs with the door on the bottom is within a column with a spiral stairs going on the outside – but the said spiral ends at the spire, while the diameter of the whole thing is not big enough to contain the entire throne room that the downwards stairs starts in. I.e. the stairs that Twilight slides up the underside of would have to occupy the same space as the throne room anyway.

4668462

But the smooth, shimmering effect of the crystal ponies doesn’t look very furry.

It doesn’t look particularly smooth to me, to be honest. In any case, cartoon resolution won’t allow us to tell.

horsey types insist it’s called hair, not fur.

Well, it is. And there is a difference: the coat of hair on horses is far less dense than what you would typically call fur, and the individual hairs are thicker.

Just ask a naturalist.

[Comnislasher]

4668481
But nothing stopping him from bring something back? And I think that if he only brings back small items like notebook no one would bother to write about this.

[howard035]

Man, this was a lot to take in. I'll just leave some of my impressions.
The first episode always bothered me a bit because of how it presented Spike and Twilight in the opening scene. Spike actually puts on armor before he tries to talk sense into Twilight, and he was smart to do so, since she blasts him into a wall for his impertinence.

I wonder if Celestia meant that Twilight was supposed to defeat Sombra without her friends as a critical success condition, but her friends were there as a backup.

That thing about snow blindness and the angle of the sun, might it be affected by the tiny size of the planet?

Interesting that you think Celestia wanted Twilight to be seen as saving the day to the Crystal Ponies. Why her and not Cadance? I would think Cadance is the one that needs to win their admiration the most.

[Cursed Quill]

“I need the Magical Compendium volumes 1 through 36!” Notice that once she does find it, it’s a single gigantic book, rather than 36 individual books.

(omnibus edition)

“She will succeed at her task. And when she does, we’ll know that she is that much closer to being ready.” I wonder if any interesting interpretations based on assuming that “she” is Cadance, rather than Twilight, exist.

A mundane one is "for rulership".

“One thousand years ago, King Sombra, a unicorn whose heart was black as night, took over the Crystal Empire.” Notice that if Celestia is being particularly literal, this would have happened after Nightmare Moon, rather than before. The subsequent flashback-exposition-presentation depicts both her and Luna, anyway.

Only particularly literal; "the year one thousand years prior" can have both events and have that as a vernacular terming.

“If the Empire is filled with hope and love, those things are reflected across all of Equestria. If hatred and fear take hold…” Celestia never describes what happens exactly.

But strongly implies, naturally, that those, too, are so-reflected. Of course, this may be a lie by omission.

Notice also that if Celestia is being literal about being “banished to the ice of the arctic north,” regardless of how this happened, since the Crystal Empire has definitely returned before Shining and Cadance arrived, he would get there first, unless a royal guard detachment could hold him. If they could, there’s no reason for the episode to exist.

Only if he remained close enough. And, unless he *did* know the precise term of his curse, I find that unlikely.

The clock at the station shows 10:30, presumably AM. Unfortunately, that’s what this particular clock always shows…

"easy" answeR: broken. Not easy, because train station clocks are kind of important…

my protection spell has been countered by King Sombra.” However, he has been there for at least some time by now, and his horn was only disabled immediately prior. Why didn’t he try to cast his shield before?

simple answer: counterspelling and suppressing are not the same thing; Shining's standard (if magnitudes larger) arcane shield is readily countered by Sombra, while the love-based one of his mate is not…and Sombra could do it again readily (should Shining be correct in sayng so). Which would then put a very high lower bound on Sombra's power, not that I think that was in question…

Despite expectations, crystal ponies don’t talk in Luna’s Equish, and there’s no sign of translation magic being used throughout the episode. Yeah, they’re my argument for Equish not changing significantly in a thousand years.

Except "you" is the formal version; it would be impolite to thou the Mane6 or the superior Princess…whereas to Luna, there aren't superiors she cannot "thou"…at least, were Luna actually adhering to proper conventions and the writers not just going "thou sounds old-timey".

Pinkie uses a new stealth suit, which turns up a few times in later episodes. Which covers half her face but leaves the cutie mark open.

and strangely, not in "Not Asking for Trouble", she uses one that covers it.

setting up the entire fair, even in a purely symbolic fashion, had to have taken most of a day.

I contest it depends how many magazines Pinkie packed for her party cannon, and if any are appropriate for such larger events.

Remembering the Heart restores the crystal ponies, which is why Sombra made sure they could not. But above, a crystal pony said that memories of Sombra’s reign were not affected. How exactly are these statements reconciled?

Fine division: remembering the heart does not restore heart to these ponies, believing it returned does. They remember that Sombra took it away and would never get it back. The thought of the Faire, for which they know so well that the Heart is necessary…they scarcely consider that the Mane 6 are trying to pull a fast one, for a Crystal Faire sans Heart is an oxymoron, impossible by definition.

senseless. She returns to the castle eventually, anyway, and if thinking was her only option, she could have done it where she started.

Perhaps she thinks better on the run, like Rainbow on the wing…no, this would not jibe with too many things established about Twilight's activity levels and book-love.

“I… just found out they’re offering face painting for the little ones.”

• Face painting is something ponies have done at fairs since time immemorial. I honestly don’t know where’s the fun in that.
• Actually, where are the little ones? Crystal pony foals don’t turn up until many episodes later.

Having it available does not guarantee any custom. The crystal ponies remain too fearful for their foals to bring them out.

Notice that every crystal pony seems to know they’ve been out of time for a thousand years, otherwise, the joke stands little chance of getting uttered.

Supports Sombra being able to get back quickly.

yet to see a living crystal unicorn in primary canon.

I dunno, there's one unicorn in this episode associated pretty strongly with crystals…

teleporting herself to an upright position, instead of simply turning herself over.

This seems frivolous, but I suspect being rolled over in telekinesis is quite disorienting. A "failsafe" teleport reorient/repose (which, hey, she demonstrated earlier in the ep, good job writers?) might be nice and easy.

As the singing Mane 6 are leaving by train, Luna teleports in a thin book decorated with stars and a swirl. This is exactly the same flash asset as the notebook Twilight gets in Magical Mystery Cure – and yes, a thousand years ago, Star Swirl used a wire bound notebook. Wire binding has been around since no earlier than 1924 in our world – accounts differ. Also notice that it’s Luna showing it to Celestia and Celestia nodding in response, not vice versa.

As stated on Discord…
[missing, challenged premise]: Starswirl's notes were never [copied and] rebound over a thousand years

[Oliver]

4668495

That thing about snow blindness and the angle of the sun, might it be affected by the tiny size of the planet?

The smaller the planet is, the further north you have to go to get the sun angle low enough for the snow blindness to manifest, I’d think…

Interesting that you think Celestia wanted Twilight to be seen as saving the day to the Crystal Ponies. Why her and not Cadance? I would think Cadance is the one that needs to win their admiration the most.

Actually, I think that Celestia had a very specific scenario in mind, which she never details to anyone within the episode. What actually happened did not follow it – but was, nevertheless, satisfactory:

Princess Celestia: You won’t. But Twilight, in the end, it must be you and you alone who ultimately assists Princess Cadance and Shining Armor in doing what needs to be done to protect the Empire. Do you understand?

Twilight later impresses it on Spike, believing it is a condition for her test:

Twilight Sparkle: You can’t. I have to retrieve the Crystal Heart by myself.
Spike: I know. I promise I won’t lift a claw to help you.
Twilight Sparkle: (sighs) Not a claw, Spike.

And then abandons this idea, even though Spike is still holding on to it:

Spike: You have to get out of there, Twilight! You have to be the one who brings the Heart to Princess Cadance! If you don’t, you’ll fail Celestia’s test!
Twilight Sparkle: King Sombra is already attacking the Empire. He could reach the Crystal Ponies at any moment… reach Princess Cadance, my brother, my friends. There may not be enough time for me to find a way to escape.
(stone cracking)
Twilight Sparkle: You have to be the one to bring the Crystal Heart to the Faire.

But Celestia still thinks it went well:

Twilight Sparkle: I wish it had been me who ultimately made it so. But it wasn’t.
Princess Celestia: Twilight, as I understand it, Spike brought Princess Cadance the Crystal Heart because you weren’t sure how quickly you could find a way to escape the tower. You weren’t willing to risk the future of the citizens of the Crystal Empire in an effort to guarantee your own. Far better that I have a student who understands the meaning of self-sacrifice than one who only looks out for her own best interests.

I.e. Celestia assesses Twilight’s motive and judges this to mean that Twilight has “passed the test” – but notice that this still says nothing about what the test actually was about! Celestia might have expected something magical to happen through Twilight bringing the heart to Cadance, instead, for example, but since that did not happen, Twilight actually demonstrating good character by picking an “I care more about the success of the mission than my own evaluation” solution is seen as good enough. We don’t really know.

The only alternative to this viewpoint that I can think of is a Celestia that risks the livelihood of multiple ponies close to her and thousands of unrelated crystal ponies just to test the character trait of Twilight’s that she should be well aware of already, which is actually far more callous than I think Celestia should be allowed to be.

4668499

Only if he remained close enough. And, unless he did know the precise term of his curse, I find that unlikely.

If we’re being literal and Sombra is the origin of the “curse,” he would know the precise term, though, wouldn’t he? He would be the only one to know, even!

Except “you” is the formal version; it would be impolite to thou the Mane6 or the superior Princess…whereas to Luna, there aren’t superiors she cannot “thou”

That’s not the only trait of Luna’s Equish, though, is it? And Amethyst, being the learned librarian, has the longest speaking lines among the crystal ponies and speaks perfectly modern Equish.

and strangely, not in “Not Asking for Trouble”.

Probably, because that mission involved actual stealth, rather than just playing stealth.

I dunno, there’s one unicorn in this episode associated pretty strongly with crystals…

Fie, you would call Rarity a thousand year old maid?!

Starswirl’s notes were never [copied and] rebound over a thousand years

Considering that the notebook has individual pieces of paper stored between the pages, I very much doubt this is a copy – though, it might not actually be associated with Star Swirl either.

[howard035]

4668534 I guess the idea is, Celestia knew Twilight would rely on her friends if she brought them, which is why she made sure they came along even though Celestia said they should not be used. Now that she has shown she can defy Celestia if the stakes are high enough, she's ready to be a Princess.

[QueenMoriarty]

4668481
That still begs the question of where her mental image of 'Celestia is the single strictest teacher on the face of the planet and will banish dissenters' came from. How fired should Canterlot's personal tutors be?

[Oliver]

4668541

I guess the idea is, Celestia knew Twilight would rely on her friends if she brought them, which is why she made sure they came along even though Celestia said they should not be used. Now that she has shown she can defy Celestia if the stakes are high enough, she’s ready to be a Princess.

There is an issue with this interpretation:

1. Let us assume that this is, indeed, the case exactly: Celestia requires that Twilight defy her for demonstration purposes.
2. However, if Celestia is certain this would happen, there is no need to demonstrate this at all. And if Celestia is not certain this would happen, she should consider the possibility of Twilight not defying her.
3. If Twilight does not defy Celestia, Sombra’s trap would probably ensure she fails: Twilight can’t get out of there on her own quickly enough. This would likely mean Sombra’s total victory and Equestria would be royally screwed.
4. Which would imply that Celestia is behaving worse than the Old Testament God who orders Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. See the commentary on that, by the way.

The only reasonable way out of this I can see is that there is some sort of special significance for Twilight to defy Celestia, rather than for Celestia to know that Twilight can defy her. But even that feels relatively weak, and still implies an all-knowing Celestia, which other episodes suggest is not the case – she is definitely wise and knows many mysterious things, but is neither omniscient nor prescient. See, for example, A Celestial Advice.

Which is why I think this happened:

1. Celestia expected something would happen between Twilight and the Heart, something which we don’t know much about, which would be an important step towards Twilight’s apotheosis.
2. Failing that, a change in Twilight herself, wherein Twilight knows that she can defy Celestia, is a satisfactory outcome, but a smaller step.
3. The suggestion to give Twilight the notebook with Star Swirl’s Unfinished Spell originates with Luna, rather than Celestia, and is an alternate path towards apotheosis from the one that Celestia originally envisioned.

[Oliver]

4668579

That still begs the question of where her mental image of ‘Celestia is the single strictest teacher on the face of the planet and will banish dissenters’ came from. How fired should Canterlot’s personal tutors be?

Rapid fired?

Actually, the perfect explanation would be if she heard a rumor about Celestia’s previous personal student, who was so banished, that nopony has ever seen her since. Sunset Shimmer, that is. In fact, I don’t even think Twilight’s behavior in Equestria Girls contradicts that…

I must meditate on that.

[howard035]

4668584 Oh shoot, you're theory is that basically Celestia thought Twilight, upon coming into contact/activating the Crystal Heart, would alicornize on the spot? That's possible, and certainly an interesting theory. The Crystal Heart certainly seems like a far more powerful artifact than that stupid little necklace that brought Cadenza over the line. Heck, the fact that Flurry was conceived and gestated within 100 feet of it for long periods of time might explain why she's an alicorn.

Yeah, I could see why Celestia would be very precise with her instructions then. Does this mean we don't think Celestia and Luna were scrying on them and poised to teleport in and crush Sombra if he actually got the Crystal Heart back?

[Oliver]

4668604

Oh shoot, you’re theory is that basically Celestia thought Twilight, upon coming into contact/activating the Crystal Heart, would alicornize on the spot?

Something to that effect, though probably, alicornizing on the spot wasn’t what Celestia expected to happen. But I think she hoped it would. The phrase “She will succeed at her task. And when she does, we’ll know that she is that much closer to being ready.” is ambiguous. Assuming that it does refer to Twilight, – it can refer to Cadance – I think that if we don’t want to assume that Celestia is being petty, it requires that something happen to Twilight. And it doesn’t feel to me that simply defying Celestia was “it.” It was a “close enough to please her, but no cigar.”

Heck, the fact that Flurry was conceived and gestated within 100 feet of it for long periods of time might explain why she’s an alicorn.

You try not being born an alicorn when your mother’s an alicorn and you’re being constantly blasted with accumulated love of the entire city worth of ponies who are so bloody happy that their nightmares are finally over, they’re firing the Heart every weekend for months. :)

Does this mean we don’t think Celestia and Luna were scrying on them and poised to teleport in and crush Sombra if he actually got the Crystal Heart back?

Beats me, to be honest. They’ve certainly waited until the very last possible moment to do it if they were.

[Cursed Quill]

If we’re being literal and Sombra is the origin of the “curse,” he would know the precise term, though, wouldn’t he? He would be the only one to know, even!

Nah. If he put a "lock away as long as I have power to enforce" curse out, rather than having a specific failure clause (depends how pressed he was by Celestia et al), then it might have not been visible from the outside nor have easily-understood failure parameters, since he was doing it "as good as possible" and would not be able to see his own faults…

Fie, you would call Rarity a thousand year old maid?!

I meant Sombra ;p

[howard035]

4668644

You try not being born an alicorn when your mother’s an alicorn and you’re being constantly blasted with accumulated love of the entire city worth of ponies who are so bloody happy that their nightmares are finally over, they’re firing the Heart every weekend for months. :)

That's why her horn and wings are abnormally large, she got overdosed on pure harmony and love. But seriously, that actually ties into Thorax acting like she's love plutonium when he first meets her.

Beats me, to be honest. They’ve certainly waited until the very last possible moment to do it if they were.

Mmmmaybe? Most of the conflict was over getting the heart away from Sombra. The Sisters knew even if he got the heart, he couldn't really use it himself, and then they could just teleport in and beat him up again. Yeah, there's that terrifying thing where it looks like Spike and the Heart are about to land in the middle of smoky Sombra and Sombra will try to eat them, but in smoke form shouldn't those things just pass through him? (and land safely, as they are a major artifact and a dragon, so both pretty indestructible). As long as they don't focus on grim ironic punishment like turning him into a shadow that lets him fire off a time spell again, they should b e golden.

[Oliver]

4668979

Most of the conflict was over getting the heart away from Sombra. The Sisters knew even if he got the heart, he couldn’t really use it himself, and then they could just teleport in and beat him up again.

Actually, there’s an interesting ambiguity here: It might be that teleporting and beating him up again is not an option.

I am assuming that when Celestia gravely hints that “but if hatred and fear take hold…” she means “Sombra can turn this entire city into a slave army and we’re not ready for a real land war on that scale, not to mention that it would incur unacceptable loss of life.” This is what makes the most sense for Aporia.

But this interpretation is not the only one. In fact, with all the “Fall of Equestria”-derivatives, the more common interpretation is that the Heart can be used as an arbitrary emotion amplifier. If you accept Sombra’s comics origins, this is bogus: He can’t use the Heart, period, he cant even corrupt it.

However, it is still possible for this interpretation to be broadly correct, if it’s not the Heart that is the vehicle of such emotional manipulation. Notice that there’s a specific crystal, kind of coffin-shaped, which Celestia is using as a prop during her exposition speech, and Twilight is recognizing as a similar device embedded into the throne assembly.

We never get any explanatory comments from anyone regarding what these things are. But I suspect that the Heart is the love-energy-amplifier, the source of the power, but the castle is a purpose-built antenna, designed to make use of it for a variety of purposes.

Regardless of the above, I doubt Celestia and Luna actually seriously considered teleporting in themselves: The comics invariably show them flying, rather than teleporting cross-country, when responding to threats, and by the time the Heart fires and the aurora reaches Central Equestria, they’re at home in Canterlot castle. They would basically have to outrun the aurora to get home in time – an option, surely, but kinda pointless, because they didn’t really need to do this. Alternatively, they had an option to end up on the scene instantly straight from Canterlot, but notice that this is not an option they ever used for anything else.

[howard035]

4669077

she means “Sombra can turn this entire city into a slave army and we’re not ready for a real land war on that scale, not to mention that it would incur unacceptable loss of life.” This is what makes the most sense for Aporia.

Yes, if they can't just teleport up there. If they can practice the old "Scry and Fry", the Sisters could appear up in the air and blast him to pieces before he's crafted his first helmet, if they're setting "Sombra captures the Heart" as the point at which they would intervene.

I suspect that the Heart is the love-energy-amplifier, the source of the power, but the castle is a purpose-built antenna, designed to make use of it for a variety of purposes.

I think you're on to something there. I doubt Sombra could easily replicate the Heart, but he might be able to craft a weaker despair version. Would explain part of why everyone is so glum in the S5 finale.

The comics invariably show them flying, rather than teleporting cross-country, when responding to threats

This is one of those things where that is what is shown, but we've also seen them teleport. I mean, why was Twilight's Want It Need It spell the only threat worth teleporting for? Or heck, maybe the answer is that Celestia can teleport but Luna can't, so Celestia was scrying on it from Canterlot and Luna was there disguised as Berry Punch.

[Meta Four]

Pinkie uses a new stealth suit, which turns up a few times in later episodes. Which covers half her face but leaves the cutie mark open. That’s also the first time Pinkie’s night vision goggles appear – orange lenses with an undefined purple lens between the eyes. 

I believe that design is a nod to the night vision goggles in the Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell series. As far as I know, that center lens doesn’t really do anything for those, either.

• Just how the hell did Berry Punch end up in the jousting stadium, I have no idea, but there she is among the audience, the only non-crystal pony there – and the only non-crystal pony in the entire Empire beside Shining, Cadance and the Mane 6.

Derpy is also briefly visible. And four other ponies in the foreground who I can’t identify but appear to be non-crystals.