Points of Canon: My Little Pony Movie

This had to happen sooner or later. I’ll admit I have been putting it off, but since Season 8 references it so heavily, there’s no point.

• Chronological markers: The movie is a chronological watershed. So far, every episode of Season 8 that possibly could either relied on School Daze, which wastes no time acknowledging the movie, or referenced the movie independently. At the same time, the requisite changes in the Canterlot Castle position it squarely after the events of Shadow Play. I actually need to update the chronology, introducing the throne room changes and the School of Friendship as hard upper markers and go through every episode, marking the ones where it’s definite that neither has happened yet.

Canterlot

• Movie Canterlot geography implies that it’s built in tiers, more so than it is built on the plate hanging off the mountain, with tiers connected by bridges. The series itself never demonstrates this kind of layout.
• Close inspection of the opening shots reveals Minuette, Mrs. Cake with both of the Cake Twins, and Trixie. Lyra is likewise here, and for some reason, is neither together with Bon-Bon nor completely apart from her.
• “Whoa! Everypony from Manehattan to Saddle Arabia is here!” We never see anyone we could possibly identify as Saddle Arabian, at that.

• “We almost couldn’t book a stable!”

  • Typically we don’t hear hotels referred to as “stables.” In fact, only one episode has ever used the word before – A Flurry of Emotions – and it did not refer to a hotel.
  • Booking a hotel would involve some manner of service by mail or telegraph.
• The Canterlot Castle got a major facelift, which has since been repeated in every Season 8 episode that featured it. Probably the most important change is the addition of a second throne.
• Twilight is wearing a crown, which happens very rarely. I wonder what the actual conditions are. Also notice this is a new crown: It is nothing at all like the crown she wore in Twilight’s Kingdom.
• “I’m about to ask the three most royal princesses of Equestria for a huge favor! What if they reject me?” Twilight is asking to make alterations in the day/night cycle and her request does get denied. Compare to Horse Play where, apparently, this happens without prompting and for a far more petty reason.
• “I’d like to think it’s to see us, but Songbird Serenade might be the bigger attraction.” Actually, why would she be?

• “Songbird Serenade’s performance is not scheduled to start until after you begin the sunset.”

  • Someone has already analyzed Twilight’s mathematics on the board, so I don’t have to. Most of it makes no reasonable sense, though I would say that the use of cupcakes in mathematics implies that Twilight has evolved special syntax for analyzing friendship or fun numerically. One other thing to note is that it definitely precludes the Pony Moon from being on an orbit similar to our Moon.
  • Twilight is using a whiteboard and a felt tip marker. We’ve seen some subtypes of felt tip pens previously, very, very rarely, but never a whiteboard. Notice also that Twilight is capable of creating very detailed drawings without even looking at them.
  • “And based on my precise calculation, to get the very best lighting for the stage, Princess Celestia, I was hoping you could make sure the sun stays about 28.1° to the south, and, Princess Luna, if you could raise the moon 62° to the north at the same time, it would reflect the sunlight on the other side and really frame the entire stage perfectly!” See RTAC #7. It is evident from, say, Princess Twilight Sparkle, that the Moon shines by itself: The phases never change as the moon moves. However, that does not preclude it from being reflective anyway, so Twilight’s scheme can still work.
  • “Cadance, if you could use your crystal magic to create an aurora above the stage, the sun and the moon will shine through it and create a truly amazing light show!” Twilight expects that Cadance can do this. There is no indication anywhere else in canon that she knows this kind of trick and we never actually see it done. However, the drawings indicate that the aurora Twilight expects Cadance to produce is related to magnetic fields. We know that the Pony Earth has some magnetic fields, since they do use compasses – and a scene in Rock Solid Friendship implies the compasses actually are magnetic, despite the unorthodox design – however, the other component would be solar wind. The actual cause of the auroras in our world are charged particles of the solar wind interacting with the atmosphere when the outside magnetic noise is so strong that the Earth’s magnetic field dips. The only known source of auroras in Equestria is the Crystal Heart, which would imply that the cause of auroras in Equestria is reversed entirely, being charged particles leaving the atmosphere, rather than entering it. I have no idea why Twilight expects that Cadance can recreate the effect without the Heart, however, or even, whether she does.
  • “Well, I’d do it myself, except I don’t have your magic.” Notice that this is not necessarily an indication that Twilight can’t do it at all. See Journal of the Two Sisters and Horse Play.
• Pinkie makes a balloon animal Discord. That’s all that we’ll see of Discord in the entire movie.
• “Especially since I wasn’t raised in a barn. My family just happens to have a barn. Where I was born. And… spent most of my formative years…” Applejack claims to have been born in the barn, rather than, say, in a maternity ward of a hospital, something to be kept in mind. That said, things Applejack claims about her past and childhood often get contradicted for some stupid reason…
• “And scary as it seems, more help is on the way” This line is accompanied by the appearance of the Wonderbolts, who are for some reason on cloudbusting duty, and do not play any appreciable role in the rest of the movie, except by getting captured. Of particular interest is Derpy, who tries to bump hooves with them when they’re done, but fails, and was apparently working with them.

• Random things from the montage:

  • Zecora has a booth at the festival, selling potions.
  • Vinyl’s DJ equipment has the highest resolution oscilloscope shown to date.
  • Trixie pops up again, as do Mr. and Mrs. Cake. There’s no clue where their children are now.
  • Tree Hugger is hanging out at Fluttershy’s petting zoo.
  • In addition to the stock Apples, just about every known member of the Apple clan is there.
  • In addition to Sassy Saddles, who pops up multiple times, Coco Pommel is here too.
  • Cheese Sandwich is using a welding mask and is, apparently, welding, for which he is using a liquid-fueled blow torch.
• “It’s a promise to bring ponies together / And never let anypony down” As Twilight is singing this, she is flying under the bridge where Twinkleshine, Minuette and Moondancer hang out. They wave to Twilight, who looks in their direction and does not acknowledge them. I suppose the rest of the movie can be interpreted as karmic punishment for this.

• “We’ve got an awful lot to bake”

  • Pinkie is using a unique muscle-powered blender derived, apparently, from a bicycle, which isn’t something we have actually seen ponies use.
  • The rest of the shot is full of crated milk bottles and eggs, and milk bottles is another thing that is not seen often. Crating them like that suggests (but doesn’t require) pasteurization: using larger containers would be far more economical if it wasn’t available.
  • While Pinkie is singing, Trixie is launching a box of fireworks, and we see our only proper shot of Starlight Glimmer in the entire movie. After this scene, they apparently hide somewhere to eat a cake and are AWOL for the rest of it until the end credits.
• We can’t determine what is the caliber of Pinkie’s party cannon exactly, but the diameter of the cake that eventually falls onto Twilight is some three meters. You could take out an airship with just the cake. Easily.
• “Songbird Serenade? Is it really her?” This guy has an unusual, very short beard and mustache. For that matter, so does one of Songbird’s guards.
• “You have visual on buttercream?” “Visual confirmed. Go for cleanup.” We have previously seen guards with earpieces in the series, but this is the only instance so far of them actually using said earpieces. Notice that this happens at a distance of no more than two meters. We basically have no evidence they work at range, and this is consistent with no-modulated-higher-frequencies restriction that I have previously proposed.
• Unlike most known Equestrian-make airships, Storm King’s fleet uses screws for propulsion, rather than wing-flippers.
• “Brian, no!” Party Favor’s here. I don’t think any of the other Our Town ponies have been spotted, however. Why is he calling this balloon animal “Brian” is anyone’s guess.
• Judging by the feedback noise, the megaphone Grubber is using is artificially amplified, and the wire going from the microphone implies it is, in fact, electrical, though no other details can be inferred about the technology.
• Notice that all the other sapient races with hands so far observed on Pony Earth have four fingers – this is particularly noticeable in Equestria Girls, where Sunset turns from a five-fingered human into a four-fingered demon. Grubber also has four fingers, as does every Klugetown resident, most of which are unique. Storm King’s storm troopers is the only species which has three. The only other exception is Storm King himself, who is very similar to his storm troopers – but, instead of the paws, has cloven hooves on his legs, and is referred to as such in speech.
• “And why should we cower before you? There’s one of you and hundreds of us.” Considering that Canterlot Boutique gives us a population estimate for Canterlot closer to half a million, this is a severe understatement, this square alone should contain over a thousand ponies.
• It’s interesting that both Celestia, Luna and Cadance recognize the gorgon grenades as dangerous the moment the first one is thrown. It’s also interesting that instead of attempting to deflect or bounce them off, Cadance chooses to use a shield, which they eventually phase through. As a side note, the grenades are never named in the movie, so I wonder where the name actually came from.
• “Luna, quick! Go south beyond the Badlands! Seek help from the Queen of the Hippo[griffs]!” So why them? There was, so far, not a single pony in guard armor on screen, Shining Armor is completely absent, Discord is referenced and then his existence is entirely ignored, known powerful individuals, like Starlight Glimmer, who is right here, are forgotten, legendary Pillars, who are supposed to be in the country at the moment, are likewise forgotten. Much has been said about how stupid this is. No good explanation has so far surfaced that I am aware of. The absence of the Guard is particularly conspicuous – they aren’t even ineffectual as they typically are, they just don’t exist.
• Whether Derpy wanted to push Twilight out of the path of the gorgon grenade, or was just unlucky, is anyone’s guess. Notice, however, that while for Celestia, Luna and Cadance, their regalia are turned to stone as well, Derpy’s paper hat/horn remains paper.
• Twilight’s magic blast gets reflected off one of the Storm Trooper’s shields. Compare to the ricochet sequence in The Crystalling.
• “Come on! I spy with my little eye something that is orange. No takers? It’s you, Applejack!” This is one of those exceedingly rare references to pony colors in speech. It also shuts down the theories that postulate that pony colors are a narrative device. Yes, ponies really are colorful.
• Spitfire and the other Wonderbolts are among the captured ponies. I suppose they did put up a fight, because I doubt anything Storm King had could capture a fast-moving pegasus otherwise.
• Storm King’s communication system is unique, and involves a liquid, which nevertheless, emits sound when a call is initiated, requires pouring into a bowl to be used, and still, Storm King calls it a “spell.”
• “Uh, that would be the Staff of Sacanas, Your Excellency, and it will channel the magic of the four rulers of this land.” No mention of where this thing came from has ever surfaced, not even in the Movie Prequel miniseries, and we don’t have a clue who Sacanas was. Maybe it’s ‘t’ instead of a ‘c?’ Also, why would the staff be connected to the princesses, and for that matter, is it?
• “Give me three days, I’ll have everything ready for your arrival.” Yes, the entire movie has to fit into three days.
• “Sorry, bad spell service. You want me to call him back?” Gabber can do it, though I wonder how exactly would he go about it.
• “Prepare my ship!” Tempest has a personal ship all to herself.

Klugetown

• All those skulls imply things actually die here rather a lot, don’t they?
• Spike behaves like he’s overheated, which simply can’t happen in the sun with a creature that receives health benefits from bathing in lava. I expect it’s actually something he ate…
• “You know what they say: where there’s a city, there’s a spa!” “Who says that?” They don’t actually say that, but I expect that were this a pony city, Rarity’s expectation would still be justified.
• “Hey! You with the horn, you selling?” This particular vendor has a whole collection of horns of various kinds, but I wonder, who is buying them, and what for?
• Multiple Klugetown residents – who, as I’ve mentioned before, appear to be unique – also appear to be derived from aquatic species. It’s not just the fish-man, but there’s also an apparent salamander, as well as at least one other creature with gills. In the desert. I am inclined to think that most of them are not representatives of rare sapient species, but some manner of mutants, or transformed creatures of more common species.
• “Hey! No magic around my merchandise!” Notice that he waited for Twilight to be done before saying that.
• “I’ll give ya two storm bucks for it!” Whether Klugetown is within Storm King’s territory or not – we still don’t know for sure, it behaves like a rather lawless place of scum and villainy – it does use his currency.
• “Just look at all those colors! You think that’s natural? They’re infected with ‘pastelis coloritis.’” See above – this is further reference to pony colors in speech. Also, this is an indication that locals don’t see ponies often, if at all, and certainly, not in groups, in which case it would be impossible to miss that they’re all different colors.
• “Enjoy your last moments and don’t touch anyone. Because parts will fall off.” Determining which parts is the fish-man grabbing in terror is left as an exercise to the reader, because there are no parts visible on his body anywhere in the region, and he does not wear pants, either. Which is actually another piece of evidence to imply that he is not originally a fish-man, and probably had bits around there.
• “Tell Verko, ‘My place, twenty minutes.’ I’ve got something that will magically erase all my debt.” See Movie Prequel for supposed origins of said debt.

• Capper’s pad contains, among other things:

  • Entirely too much stuff for someone who’s supposed to be deeply in debt, and considering that our best dating for the events of the Movie Prequel is squarely within the series run, it had been accumulated very, very fast. If all of this had been picked from trash, Klugetown throws out quite a lot of perfectly serviceable stuff.
  • Frying pans and kitchen mittens with no sign of an oven.
  • Far more dishes and cups than a single cat would have a use for, with no obvious spoons or forks.
  • A gramophone, apparently spring-driven.
  • A teapot with three spouts. Short and stout.
  • A portrait of Storm King – yes, I’m pretty sure that’s him, or at the very least, a being of the same species as the Storm King himself – in a coat with numerous medals, with Capper’s face plastered over the Storm King’s face. I’m very curious why exactly does this exist and how did it end up in Klugetown.
  • A kerosene lamp.
• “Not like the Queen of the Lions, or Tigers, or Bears?” More likely than not, this line should be interpreted to mean that hippopotamuses don’t have a queen the same way that lions, tigers and bears don’t, rather than the reverse.
• “…or something real bad’s gonna happen.” When Gabber utters this line, we can see that he is wielding a candied apple. Doesn’t look like he got one in Klugetown, so I wonder where exactly did it come from – especially considering multiple instances of cake he keeps consuming from then on.
• Tempest, with no magical assistance available or possible, is capable of jumping into the air with at least 300kg worth of fish-man.
• “Guys! We’ve been looking for the wrong queen! We don’t need the Queen of the Hippos! We need the Queen of the Hippogriffs! Part pony, part eagle!” Twilight has found this map in an atlas, which implies that it was a fold-out map. Most of these are glued in, so to get it out, she had to tear it out.
• “You mean the mountain right outside the window?” Actually, how exactly did Pinkie identify it? The map Twilight is manipulating has Mount Aris positioned in the middle of the top edge, which in most cases would be north. The official movie map places Mount Aris on an island far off the southern coast of the continent, and to the southeast of Klugetown. When we get a better look at the map later on, it makes no sense whatsoever – it insists the island is connected to a continent by a chain of rocks, but there’s no suitable continent on the official map, unless the map is deliberately not oriented north up.
• The window the mountain is visible from is the window immediately behind the windmill blades, which implies that this is where the prevailing winds in Klugetown blow from.
• “They headed east! Yeah, to… to Black Skull Island.” Black Skull Island is depicted on the official map, but not labeled, and it is located directly east from the Klugetown.

Airship

• Notable artifacts on the airship:

  • The pirate banner has a bird skull, rather than the skull of any other species. Compare to other ambiguous skulls, say, in Luna Eclipsed.
  • A poster on the wall with text in yet another heretofore unknown script, marked with the Storm King’s logo and apparently, signature and a seal.
  • Celaeno’s Wall of Pirate Fame, the most notable objects on which are a map – the kind where X marks the spot – and her portrait. Who drew that and when?
  • There’s also yet another compass with no south arrow on that Wall of Fame, and this is particularly strange because moments later, Twilight is caught using a perfectly normal compass – with a proper north-south arrow – when plotting the course to Mount Aris.
  • Storm King action figures in one of the cargo crates, as well as numerous random goods branded with his logo – like umbrellas. These are later referenced in speech as Celaeno looks up the cargo manifest to find a princess. Notice that the airship has just departed Klugetown. So where were these objects manufactured, and where are they expected to be sold?…
• “Eh, probably just the rats. If we find ’em, we’ll eat ’em.” Sapient parrots are omnivorous.
• The airship has wing-flippers for propulsion, but is for some reason not moving them, even though it is pushing through the clouds.
• “Storm King’s rule book says, ‘Throw them overboard.’” Storm King’s rulebook, notably, comes in a binder, which implies it is frequently updated. The huge number of bookmarks on Celaeno’s copy implies it is consulted frequently on this ship.
• “Rainbow Dash, this really isn’t a good time for a—” Twilight is able to detect a song before it starts, and yeah, songs are entirely diegetic throughout. That said, the food mysteriously disappears from the plates the moment Rainbow starts her song…
• The course Twilight plots towards Mount Aris implies approaching it from the side of the continent, which requires the map to be originally drawn south side up.
• “Come on! Let’s show these little ponies how it’s done!” Whatever makes the rainbow sails propulsion work, Celaeno was not using them when simply hauling goods for the Storm King. Why?
• When sparring with Celaeno, Rainbow is wielding the sword with her mouth, which does not apparently impede her talking.
• “Oh, for Celestia’s sake!” Rarity is still the most likely pony to take Celestia’s name in vain.
• Twilight manufactures a hot air balloon while falling through the air. While this is indeed spectacular, there’s no way this size of envelope should be able to keep six ponies and one baby dragon aloft. There are no visible sources of lift other than Spike’s flame. However, we already know it’s not regular fire in the first place, so it might be partially responsible. Otherwise, Twilight just cast some manner of antigravity spell while assembling it.

Mount Aris

• I tried looking up the rates of moss growth and came up with nothing useful. But eyeballing it, from the looks alone, Mount Aris settlement has been abandoned for at least a decade, and possibly two.
• “I didn’t make these bubbles!” Skystar admits to saving Twilight and company, which means that she had to be the one who did. This would require magic of some kind, but the exact mechanic is never elaborated, nor it is explained why would Skystar want that capability. Although, her general outlook suggests she had been itching for a chance to use this trick since forever.
• Skystar illustrates her story by turning on the local equivalent of stained glass windows. So why aren’t these on by default?
• “Well, I guess the pearl is out the oyster now. I am Queen Novo.” While we can’t tell exactly when did the invasion of Mount Aris occur, we can at least be certain that Queen Novo was alive and was the queen at the time. My guess, however, is that Skystar had been born a seapony, or at least, was brought over at a very young age.
• “Well, I suppose I should make sure it still works.” The pearl has not been used with any kind of regularity since the exodus, but since Skystar clearly knows what to expect, she has seen it used at least once. I wonder who were the previous visitors and what happened to them.
• So why exactly does Spike turn into a puffer fish, rather than any variation on a seapony?
• Jamal is some manner of sapient squid in service to Queen Novo. We never see these creatures after this sequence.
• For that matter, seaponies use almost no implements of material culture. While Skystar parades various decorative items made from seashells, the one that would imply the most advanced technology would be the picture frame, and the most advanced objects seen are the spears of the guards. That’s what you call “bomb them back into the stone age,” I guess.
• The sea anemone holding the pearl acts as a magic restraining device when it captures Twilight – something that the ponies should have, but we almost never actually see.
• “The Queen was going to say yes! We did what you told us and that’s what made her realize we were ponies worth saving!” So is Pinkie justified in thinking that? While Novo says, “Well, I guess there is one small thing we can do” she also says “You don’t deserve to be one of us” which makes me suspect that what she was about to offer wasn’t what Twilight asked for.
• “I never would have done it, but this isn’t Equestria!” Nice of you to clarify this, Twilight.
• The cage Twilight is captured with is another example of magic-restraining device. Notice that while the anemone works more like we would expect – a horn restraint, theorized by fandom since very early on – the cage seems to be a more general form, not relying on unicorn biology.
• Spike escapes by setting the storm trooper on fire, something you’d wish he would do more often.

Tempest’s ship

• The cage is positioned within and deployed from an obviously purpose-built compartment. So who else did they capture in such a manner? Because there’s no way Tempest had the option to just swap in a module when setting off on her cross-continent chase for the last princess.
• Tempest’s flashback is presented as part of the song montage, so we don’t know what exactly was it that she told Twilight. However, Twilight’s line “I’m so sorry you felt so alone” implies that she at least got most of it.

• If the flashback is to be believed – which is always a risky proposition – these are the tidbits that we can extract:

  • It was an Ursa Minor, rather than Major, that destroyed Tempest’s horn.
  • The town it happened in has distinctive architecture, which is nothing like Ponyville, though it borders on a forest where an Ursa dwells.
  • Tempest’s friends were other unicorns, rather than members of different pony tribes, and no ponies other than unicorns were seen, so it might have been a unicorn majority town.
  • It’s more like she scared them off rather than they outright abandoned her.
• We never actually see Ponyville in the movie. However, if I am correct, this shot implies it got firebombed too. Check the lower left. While the expected landmarks are not visible, the river matches.

The Rescue

• “That crazy unicorn sunk it. But you got back our argh! And we’re ready to kick some booty.” Well, at least they aren’t about to kick plot. Although, this plot could use some kicking.
• Lyra reappears among the captured ponies. Whatever the Spa Sisters were doing in Canterlot that day is anyone’s guess.

• The Staff of Sacanas is highlighted again, as the Storm King uses it to recover the magic of the four princesses by plugging it into some manner of magic array on the floor of the Canterlot Castle throne room.

  • So the cage is magic-restraining. Why does the Staff work despite that?
  • The array has been there before the invasion – it can be seen when Twilight presents her illumination plan. However, I am pretty sure there was no such pattern on the floor of the throne room prior to the renovations. What the aerial intercourse is going on here?
• “Let’s get this storm started! Ooh, hey, that’s good. I should trademark that.” Either the Storm King’s own state, or whichever government he came from, or both, has the concept of legally protected trademarks.

• “You gotta be kiddin’ me! I can move the sun?”

  • Notice that the Storm King does not consciously wish to move the stellar objects, he’s just trying out what the staff can do, without fully realizing its capabilities.
  • It’s highly likely that at least the Storm King himself was not aware that ponies are in charge of the solar cycle, or he would expect this ability, or treat the invasion of Equestria with a lot more caution. Which is very, very, very fucking strange.
  • The speed with which the sun and moon move across the horizon produces the same conclusions as Twilight’s actions in Twilight’s Kingdom: It is impossible for them to be an actual star and an actual planetoid, and it is impossible for this magic to affect the rotation of the Pony Earth, if any conceivable strain of Newtonian physics is in effect at all. See RTAC #7.
• Spike is pretending to be a candle on the cake. To do this, he has to be able to maintain a low-level flame for minutes at a time.
• Capper has somehow managed to forge a cake order with a seal, effectively enough to fool the storm troopers.
• “Yeah, yeah! Friendship, and flowers, and ponies, and bleh! I’m so totally over the cute pony thing. This… ends… now!” And then, the Storm King decides to spawn a huge tornado for no obvious reason whatsoever, endangering both the small group of invaders – who were only effective against his troops at all due to Spike being used as a flamethrower – and his own army, who prove far less resistant. What exactly happened here? Movie Prequel provides no clues, and in fact, his treatment of his own troops there is a stark contrast to this action.
• “You sure about this?” Pinkie’s party megacannon is fired using a blasting machine – an electrical device.
• It’s possible for a gorgon grenade to affect multiple targets at once.
• The nature of the mass-architectural-recovery magic is never elaborated. It could be a massive scale failsafe spell. See The Return of Harmony.

And, that’s it. The credit sequence could, potentially, be analyzed too, however, considering that it contains an actual queen of the hippos, I doubt it’s meant to be taken seriously as part of the narrative. We don’t know what actually happened to the storm troopers.

Some analysis

It annoys me, but what I wrote above is full of baseless guesswork. This movie produces far more questions than it produces answers, and does not sit well with the series at all.

• Almost every song in the entire movie was started by ponies and most of them were the major factors responsible for other people being responsive to their pleas. The only exception is the song started by Capper, which actually worked the same on ponies themselves. See harmony.
• It’s tempting to name Storm King a yeti, if only because he looks most like the yeti seen in Party Pooped. However, the similarities are superficial, and those yetis also have four fingers. Storm King and his army might not even be native to this world at all, seeing the severe biological differences and a huge divergence in culture between Storm King and any other nation so far seen. This would also explain why he does not appear to have known that the ponies control stellar objects. What I didn’t notice before that they’re not the same species: Storm King has cloven hooves, his troopers do not.
• The biggest, most glaring hole ever is that the entire movie completely ignores powerful allies ponies are known to have, skips over the forces they should have if they have anything approaching a state – which the series heavily implies they do have – and ignores the forces that should be there. There isn’t a satisfactory explanation to this, and I’m not sure there can be – unless it’s a much more interesting story than this movie itself.

P.S. I wonder, what happens if someone tells Skystar about the applications of shell companies.

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

I'm going to have to remember the potential antiair applications of that cake cannon...

In any case, I hadn't noticed the species difference between the Storm King and his troops. That's a very perplexing one. I suppose that would actually make him a satyr? And as for Equestria's other allies... well, I do have a story in the works that tries to offer a Watsonian explanation there, but even it will have the forces responsible admit that this isn't the best way to go about fulfilling their plans.

[Oliver]

4852092

I’m going to have to remember the potential antiair applications of that cake cannon…

If you’re serious about it, probably the most effective way to use it – as well as the safest for the firing crew – is grapeshot, which is historically, the way such high caliber cannons were actually used. Purpose-made grapeshot will work better than improvised, both will be utterly devastating.

But even the cake, when it hits right, can destroy an airship just fine – that was multiple metric tons of cake.

In any case, I hadn’t noticed the species difference between the Storm King and his troops. That’s a very perplexing one. I suppose that would actually make him a satyr?

Possibly. I was convinced they were the same, until I caught Rainbow calling him “cloven-hoofed” and then went to double check. Storm troopers have paws with three fingers, but he has cloven hooves.

[Mitch H]

So why exactly does Spike turn into a puffer fish, rather than any variation on a seapony?

Buttmonkeydrake syndrome.

[Spamotron]

Another loose end is the Storm King's armory.

"If it glows he wants it," from the prequel comics. This stockpile of magical artifacts is presumably the source of the Gorgon Grenades, Magic reflecting shields and armor of the Storm Creatures, and the "cloaking device," that enabled an airship armada to go all the way from Equestria's southern border to Canterlot's central square completely undetected.

The comics had the Storm King as suspicious and untrusting of even his closest subordinates. I'll wager he took steps to guarantee only he could access his collected artifacts, likely keeping their location secret.

Somewhere in the Storm King's former empire is the super villain motherload.

[Comnislasher]

Which is very, very, very fucking strange.

For some time I play with idea that instead of being very small pony planet actually freaking big. So all sorts of races only contact with their close neighbors and know next to nothing about countries and races that live very far from them. I mean... As far as I remember Storm King knew nothing about Equestria. Up to the point that he needs Berrytwist help to even find it. I find this almost impossible on the extremely small planet.

[Oliver]

4852128

It’s not impossible for him and his entire army to be interdimensional invaders, and that would explain things.

[Mitch H]

4852149

Except he invaded and sacked Mount Aris sufficiently long ago for them to be decades-lost under the waters. And yet Celestia's first thought is to send for the hippogriffs. God only knows what that thought-process signified.

[Comnislasher]

4852149
As Mitch pointed out - Celestia obviously doesn't know that Mount Ares already fell. And quite some times ago. And Mount Ares supposed to be rather close to Equestria.

[DannyJ]

4852149

Ah, so the Storm King's forces are a shitty knock-off Wild Hunt? Which would make the Storm King himself a shitty knock-off Eredin, I guess. Yeah, I can dig it. It makes more sense than trying to fit him into the existing world, at any rate. And it also neatly explains why Tempest Shadow is so physically adept and looks so edgy; she's a fucking witcher.

[Oliver]

4852287

It’s a possibility. Here’s another thought: So where is everyone else who would protect Equestria from him?

Raiding his home base at the time.

[Production Run]

I would say that the use of cupcakes in mathematics implies that Twilight has evolved special syntax for analyzing friendship or fun numerically.

Potential alternate explanation: the images seen in mathematics here and occasionally elsewhere are actually characters from whatever that hieroglyphic language that Predictions and Prophecies was written in, and they're being used to represent mathematical constants, much like how we use Greek letters in math.

[DannyJ]

4852293

Discord confirmed for Avallac'h.

[schpeelah]

“Come on! Let’s show these little ponies how it’s done!” Whatever makes the rainbow sails propulsion work, Celaeno was not using them when simply hauling goods for the Storm King. Why?

They're non-standard and the rulebook does not take them into account. The Parrots have no intention of lifting a finger on the Storm King's behalf when not instructed to, as established by the lunch break scene.

I tried looking up the rates of moss growth and came up with nothing useful. But eyeballing it, from the looks alone, Mount Aris settlement has been abandoned for at least a decade, and possibly two.

The most annoying discrepancy in the movie to me, since this whole expedition does not enirely make sense if Celestia knew the Hippos were driven from their home by the Storm King. Still, School Daze corroborates this since Silver Stream grew up entirely in Seaquestria. Which makes Celestia staggeringly ignorant about the state of her allies living approximately two days' flight from her own capital.

It’s possible for a gorgon grenade to affect multiple targets at once.

More generally, this bit establishes that it's the green gas released by the grenade that causes the petrification, rather than being directly struck by the projectile.

The biggest, most glaring hole ever is that the entire movie completely ignores powerful allies ponies are known to have

What allies? Yaks, griffons and changelings aren't powerful, and the alliance with dragons doesn't really go much further than Ember agreeing to keep her people from invading Equestria themselves.

skips over the forces they should have if they have anything approaching a state – which the series heavily implies they do have – and ignores the forces that should be there.

True, though given the demonstrated level of competence of Tempest and the Storm Troopers, we pretty much just skipped some scenes of royal guards being stomped and Discord getting hit by a grenade because he never learned to dodge things that turn him to stone.

[Papa Dragon]

I heard somewhere that the reason so many ponies/others are missing is that the movie was an introduction to the franchise for new viewers. So they trimmed the cast down to the main players.
Havent read the prequel comic for the movie. But have heard there is a lot of character discrepancy between the two.
The movie was alright, fun but nothing amazing. A lot of wtf moments for those that have been with the show since the start. Kind of like how season eight writers dont seem to think anything prior to season five or six exists.

[Shrink Laureate]

Typically we don’t hear hotels referred to as “stables.”

The word "stable" makes it sound like fairly cheap, bulk accommodation.

Pinkie is using a unique muscle-powered blender derived, apparently, from a bicycle, which isn’t something we have actually seen ponies use.

But we have seen her fly pedal-powered helicopter contraptions.

While Pinkie is singing, Trixie is launching a box of fireworks, and we see our only proper shot of Starlight Glimmer in the entire movie. After this scene, they apparently hide somewhere to eat a cake and are AWOL for the rest of it until the end credits.

I swear there's the makings of a hilarious clopfic in there.
"I hate you."
"I hate you more."
"You got us into this."
"I'd have escaped already if you weren't here."
"Should I stop?"
"No!"
"One of those guards is looking this way."
"Let him look!"

[howard035]

Alright, let's get started!

• Movie Canterlot geography implies that it’s built in tiers, more so than it is built on the plate hanging off the mountain, with tiers connected by bridges. The series itself never demonstrates this kind of layout.

Yup. Canterlot before has always looked like just the Palace to me, this feels like the first time we saw the rest of the city.

Twilight is wearing a crown, which happens very rarely. I wonder what the actual conditions are.

The Festival of Friendship is probably her public princess duty since her coronation (saving the world doesn't really happen in front of an audience), and it seems like the whole thing was her idea.

Twilight is asking to make alterations in the day/night cycle and her request does get denied.

You know my thoughts on the illusory sun in Horse Play, but I will point out that part of why Celestia turned Twilight down might be because clearly this would just be enabling Twilight's neuroses, and actually not help her at all.

I would say that the use of cupcakes in mathematics implies that Twilight has evolved special syntax for analyzing friendship or fun numerically.

Now that's some juicy story potential! I mean, there's got to be some quant classes at the school for friendship, right?

I have no idea why Twilight expects that Cadance can recreate the effect without the Heart, however, or even, whether she does.

Perhaps she asssumed Cadance could send a snowflake message to Sunburst or SA or whoever was back home to fire up the heart by showing off baby pictures of Flurry in the public square?

• Pinkie makes a balloon animal Discord. That’s all that we’ll see of Discord in the entire movie.

I maintain Discord was staying as far away from Equestria as possible to avoid harmonic fallout from the friendship festival.

Applejack claims to have been born in the barn, rather than, say, in a maternity ward of a hospital, something to be kept in mind.

The Apple house looks a lot like a barn, that could be what she's referring to.

do not play any appreciable role in the rest of the movie, except by getting captured.

Say what you will about the Wonderbolts, at least they're consistent.

“And why should we cower before you? There’s one of you and hundreds of us.”

In olden times they could only count to a few hundred, 1,000 max.

It’s also interesting that instead of attempting to deflect or bounce them off, Cadance chooses to use a shield, which they eventually phase through.

Consider who probably trained Cadance in combat magic, "just throw a shield up" is probably her go-to move.
That said, if you were hyper-concerned with collateral damage, a bounced or deflected grenade might still hit someone else, including a civilian, while hopefully it would just explored in place around the shield.

No good explanation has so far surfaced that I am aware of.

I don't have a good explanation for all the absences, but here's an idea: the Pearl of Transformation, or whatever its called, might be able to reverse petrification from the grenades, when no other magic can (if you accept the idea that Discord is not available in the short term). Perhaps the plan (that remember, Celestia had 3 seconds to come up with) was for Luna to go to Novo, convince her to loan out the pearl, stealth back into Canterlot and use it to un-petrify Celestia and Cadance, who would hopefully then be able to beat the Storm King.

No mention of where this thing came from has ever surfaced

And why is the palace throne room set up as a ritual chamber to fit the staff?

• “Give me three days, I’ll have everything ready for your arrival.” Yes, the entire movie has to fit into three days.

That closes more plot holes than it opens, in my opinion.

• Spike behaves like he’s overheated, which simply can’t happen in the sun with a creature that receives health benefits from bathing in lava. I expect it’s actually something he ate…

He's probably queasy because he saw the deleted scene where they're harvesting a Crystal Heart from a dragon skeleton.

who isbuyingthem, and what for?

Perhaps they work as a magical battery.

I am inclined to think that most of them are not representatives of rare sapient species, but some manner of mutants, or transformed creatures of more common species.

I think Novo used to make the pearl freely available.

• “I’ll give ya two storm bucks for it!” Whether Klugetown is within Storm King’s territory or not – we still don’t know for sure, it behaves like a rather lawless place of scum and villainy – itdoesuse his currency.

Klugetown is the Casablanca to the Storm King's 3rd Reich.

Hippogriffs!Part pony, part eagle!”

Goshdangit, why isn't that "part Griffon?" that sounds really dumb.

Storm King action figures in one of the cargo crates, as well as numerous random goods branded with his logo – like umbrellas.

I'm still mystified that Hasbro made a movie where the ultimate villain comes off as a combination of Hitler and, well, Hasbro.

Otherwise, Twilight just cast some manner of antigravity spell while assembling it.

We know Twilight knows antigravity spells, see walking on the ceiling of a staircase in S3.

Mount Aris settlement has been abandoned for at least a decade, and possibly two.

Yeah, the student at Friendship Academy has never seen stairs, and she's a teenager.

• So why exactly does Spike turn into a puffer fish, rather than any variation on a seapony?

Theory: dragon resistance to magic means they get shunted into oddball forms, rather the intended form of the transformation spell.

While Novo says, “Well, I guess there is one small thing we can do” she also says “You don’t deserve to be one of us” which makes me suspect that what she was about to offer wasn’t what Twilight asked for.

Perhaps she was planning to shave off a sliver of the pearl so Twilight could leave with that?

• Spike escapes by setting the storm trooper on fire, something you’d wish he would do more often.

Yup.

The cage is positioned within and deployed from an obviously purpose-built compartment.

They probably planned from the beginning that they would have to chase after at least 1 princess, that's a contingency.

• Tempest’s friends were other unicorns, rather than members of different pony tribes, and no ponies other than unicorns were seen, so it might have been a unicorn majority town.

I was incredibly disappointed one of the unicorn friends wasn't Trixie. That's so obvious!

We never actually see Ponyville in the movie. However, if I am correct,this shotimplies it got firebombed too.

Yup, that looks right.

• So the cage is magic-restraining. Why does the Staff work despite that?

Perhaps the staff was built by changlings, and the cage is made of the same material as Chryssie's throne.

It is impossible for them to be an actual star and an actual planetoid, and it is impossible for this magic to affect the rotation of the Pony Earth

Perhaps the handles on a some kind of mini-Dyson Ring?

• Capper has somehow managed to forge a cake order with a seal, effectively enough to fool the storm troopers.

The Storm King produces a ton of paperwork, and his grunts are not likely trained in forensic accounting.

What exactly happened here?Movie Prequelprovides no clues, and in fact, his treatment of his own troops there is a stark contrast to this action.

The Disney villain moment, where the villain does something really awful, especially to his own minions, so no one has to feel bad about him dying.

What I didn’t notice before that they’renotthe same species: Storm King has cloven hooves, his troopers do not.

I like the idea of the Storm King coming through a portal, it explains a lot. Also how he doesn't seem to have a homeland, and no one has heard of him before he invades. But I think he's just a different tribe of yeti. I mean, he doesn't look more dissimilar from his Storm Troopers than Celestia does from an earth pony.

Regarding the missing allies: Discord, best theory is see above. Shining Armor and the Crystal Guard, the Changlings, the Dragons, actually would probably not counter-invade Canterlot within 3 days, so the time constraints actually make it fairly plausible they don't show up. The Royal Guard?..... I got nothing. I ran out of plot spackle and there's one more huge hole right here.

Also, why aren't there any bird people or Abyssinians at the Friendship school? I mean, they also risked their lives freeing Canterlot.

[howard035]

Oh, one other movie thought: from the prequels, the Storm King's old #2 Strife. Is he originally one of the shadow-corrupted moon people from the comics, or one of the servants of Mirror universe Stygian who escaped Starswirl's purge?

[schpeelah]

4852449
I'm pretty sure he's supposed to be an Umbrum who escaped/was never sealed with the others. Moon people got cleansed and didn't fly anyway, the Stygian storyline was far in the future irl.

[Oliver]

4852409

But we have seen her fly pedal-powered helicopter contraptions.

The setup is very different though. Pinkie’s helicopter had her lying down on her belly and using both pairs of legs to pedal. This bicycle is almost exactly like the one a human would ride.

I swear there’s the makings of a hilarious clopfic in there.

Why do you think I put it in a spoiler.

4852447

Now that’s some juicy story potential! I mean, there’s got to be some quant classes at the school for friendship, right?

School Daze is full of very similar syntax, so you bet there are.

Perhaps she asssumed Cadance could send a snowflake message to Sunburst or SA or whoever was back home to fire up the heart by showing off baby pictures of Flurry in the public square?

Possible, though the whiteboard looks like Twilight wants an aurora centered on the stage, which would be bloody difficult.

The Apple house looks a lot like a barn, that could be what she’s referring to.

She is, they keep calling it a barn. The important bit is that they did not go to a hospital for the birth, which is the standard practice in most industrial societies.

I don’t have a good explanation for all the absences, but here’s an idea: the Pearl of Transformation, or whatever its called, might be able to reverse petrification from the grenades, when no other magic can (if you accept the idea that Discord is not available in the short term).

That’s not a bad idea at all. It also allows Celestia to know the current actual state of the hippogriffs, though it raises the question “so why didn’t they take action against the Storm King sooner.”

…Or maybe, as I suggested above, they did, and that’s where everyone else is: they’re trashing his airship factories.

And why is the palace throne room set up as a ritual chamber to fit the staff?

Beats me entirely, and probably has to do with wherever everyone ran off to…

I think Novo used to make the pearl freely available.

…Ha, better idea.

Hippogriffs used to transform criminals into random creatures and banish them to the desert.

I’m still mystified that Hasbro made a movie where the ultimate villain comes off as a combination of Hitler and, well, Hasbro.

…is there a difference?

Theory: dragon resistance to magic means they get shunted into oddball forms, rather the intended form of the transformation spell.

Well, we don’t have anything better…

Perhaps she was planning to shave off a sliver of the pearl so Twilight could leave with that?

Not sure. Possible.

I was incredibly disappointed one of the unicorn friends wasn’t Trixie. That’s so obvious!

That would imply continuity. They can’t do continuity.

Perhaps the handles on a some kind of mini-Dyson Ring?

They are actually three-axis mobile, otherwise eternal night would not be possible.

But I think he’s just a different tribe of yeti. I mean, he doesn’t look more dissimilar from his Storm Troopers than Celestia does from an earth pony.

It’s possible, but I doubt either of them are yeti…

Also, why aren’t there any bird people or Abyssinians at the Friendship school? I mean, they also risked their lives freeing Canterlot.

They know friendship already?

[schpeelah]

4852447

I maintain Discord was staying as far away from Equestria as possible to avoid harmonic fallout from the friendship festival.

Or he was just on a vacation. He could just plain go to an arbitrary place on a planet or other dimension for a week at a time and be completely out of touch because of that. He does miss big events frequently.

4852648

That’s not a bad idea at all. It also allows Celestia to know the current actual state of the hippogriffs, though it raises the question “so why didn’t they take action against the Storm King sooner.”

The grenades may be a recent invention (I thought the might use bits of the Misfortune Malachite), or could not have been prominently used. We see only Tempest and the King equipped with them, and if their amount is very limited it makes sense for them not to be a big factor in fighting forces where half of the country's military might isn't concentrated in a few individuals. We haven't seen any indication Novo has any powers beyond an ordinary hippo.

This question is kind of the heart of the disagreement between Novo and Twilight, isn't it? Twilight is convinced that the Pearl can give her victory*, while Novo believes taking it to Equestria would far more likely end with it in the King's hands.

At any rate Celestia knowing about the Hippos' position and doing nothing is a big problem because (a) it makes her a huge bitch and (b) how could she possibly count on their assistance after that.

*Which implies it can turn people into things other than seaponies because what other application would it have. During the movie, I assumed the plan was to turn everypony into dragons.

[howard035]

4852944 Oh, I totally agree he was on vacation, I was just pointing out that in this particular case, Discord has a really good reason to be on vacation, with the friendship festival going on.

During the movie, I assumed the plan was to turn everypony into dragons.

I thought that during the movie too, or maybe alicorns. Another theory is that the Pearl can reverse the transformation of the Gorgon Grenades.

[B_Munro]

The utter haplessness of the entire Pony nation, Princesses and all, in dealing with the invasion annoys me so much I have so far been unable to watch the movie for fear of it inducing toxic rage.

(Starlight doesn't show up because it has been demonstrated so often that she's a seriously dangerous badass that it would be utterly unconvincing for her to job like everyone else in this movie).

It was an Ursa Minor, rather than Major, that destroyed Tempest’s horn.

Given their size, it’s hard to believe Tempest would emerge from an Ursa Major attack as anything but a gelatinous paste. Heck, even with an Ursa Minor, getting off as lightly as she did seems unlikely. (Really, something like a Manticore attack would make more sense, unless Unicorn horns are supposed to be nigh-indestructible.)

The sea anemone holding the pearl acts as a magic restraining device when it captures Twilight – something that the ponies should have, but we almost never actually see.

Magic neutralizing device/spell/whatever shows up in the “Equestria Games” episode (to prevent unicorns and Alicorns in the audience from cheating) and then is promptly forgotten. It would make a great deal of sense if the Changelings had got their porous hooves on it, since it would explain their super-kidnapping powers in “To Where and Back Again.”

But even the cake, when it hits right, can destroy an airship just fine – that wasmultiple metric tonsof cake.

Fictional airships are always far sturdier and more wind-resistant than actual airships ever were. I blame the steampunk crowd.

“the "cloaking device," that enabled an airship armada to go all the way from Equestria's southern border to Canterlot's central square completely undetected.”

Such a thing actually exists in story or at least in the comics? It at least makes the Ponies seem a little less totally incompetent.

I'm still mystified that Hasbro made a movie where the ultimate villain comes off as a combination of Hitler and, well, Hasbro.

Probably just writer snarking, aware that Hasbro executives never bother to watch more than a few minutes of a cartoon movie.

Also, why aren’t there any bird people or Abyssinians at the Friendship school? I mean, they also risked their lives freeing Canterlot.

They know friendship already?

I dunno about bird people, but judging from actual cats Abyssinians probably would rather have their tails cut off than waste time sitting in classrooms learning about “friendship.”

[JazzyWaffles]

“Luna, quick! Go south beyond the Badlands! Seek help from the Queen of the Hippo[griffs]!” So why them? There was, so far, not a single pony in guard armor on screen, Shining Armor is completely absent, Discord is referenced and then his existence is entirely ignored, known powerful individuals, like Starlight Glimmer, who is right here, are forgotten, legendary Pillars, who are supposed to be in the country at the moment, are likewise forgotten. Much has been said about how stupid this is. No good explanation has so far surfaced that I am aware of. The absence of the Guard is particularly conspicuous – they aren’t even ineffectual as they typically are, they just don’t exist.

Shining Armor, Discord, and the Pillars are all on a secret, extremely important mission that will never be mentioned again, and they took the entire guard with them for no particular reason. Starlight left to go with them moments after her first and only appearance in the movie. This secret mission will never be referenced or acknowledged because it's a secret (duh).

Is it a dumb explanation? Yes. But at least it ATTEMPTS to explain why Canterlot has literally no defenses right now.

Whether Derpy wanted to push Twilight out of the path of the gorgon grenade, or was just unlucky, is anyone’s guess. Notice, however, that while for Celestia, Luna and Cadance, their regalia are turned to stone as well, Derpy’s paper hat/horn remains paper.

I think it was intentional, considering you audibly hear what (presumably) is Derpy's voice telling her to watch out (I honestly have no idea, it might be Rainbow Dash but then that raises the question of why Miss Speed-of-sound didn't just scoop up Twilight in an instant... I'd like to think it's Derpy).

“Uh, that would be the Staff of Sacanas, Your Excellency, and it will channel the magic of the four rulers of this land.” No mention of where this thing came from has ever surfaced, not even in the Movie Prequel miniseries, and we don’t have a clue who Sacanas was. Maybe it’s ‘t’ instead of a ‘c?’ Also, why would the staff be connected to the princesses, and for that matter, is it?

The staff is unconnected. In the prequel novel, which tells Tempest's backstory, it's revealed that the Hippogriffs' Pearl was originally going to be added to the staff somehow instead of the alicorn powers. Originally, before it was cut from the script, the staff was meant to be a relic belonging to King Scorpan, stolen from him by the Storm King. The staff itself is something like a magic containment device, able to absorb the magic of objects or creatures and repurpose it. I'm pretty sure the "all four alicorns" thing here was just to complete the set, as well as to prevent anyone from having enough power to stand up to him. Of course, half of what I just said is speculation and potentially non-canon stuff, so take that with a grain of salt.

The course Twilight plots towards Mount Aris implies approaching it from the side of the continent, whichrequiresthe map to be originally drawn south side up.

Compare to early Chinese compasses, which pointed south instead of north, since the South was seen as more desirable. The only reason their maps had North at the top was that the Emperor lived in the North of the country. We can assume that whatever culture made the map shown in this movie, they likely chose South over North for one reason or another.

I tried looking up the rates of moss growth and came up with nothing useful. But eyeballing it, from the looks alone, Mount Aris settlement has been abandoned for at least a decade, and possibly two.

Which is immediately contradicted by the prequel novel, which implies only a few years have passed. Which is contradicted AGAIN by ADULT HIPPOGRIFFS not knowing about STAIRS in Season 8. To be completely honest, canon is a mess no matter how you slice it.

So why exactly does Spike turn into a puffer fish, rather than any variation on a seapony?

Spike is not a person, as dog!Spike has so clearly demonstrated for 5 years now.

The array has been there before the invasion – it can be seen when Twilight presents her illumination plan. However, I am pretty sure there was no such pattern on the floor of the throne room prior to the renovations. What the aerial intercourse is going on here?

Day 0 - Celestia arrives from the future and tells her past self to rennovate the castle and add the array.
Day 3 - The Rennovations are completed and the movie starts.
Day 6 - The movie ends after 3 days.
Day 7 - Remembering what happened a week ago, Celestia uses Star Swirl's spell to go back in time and tell herself to add the array.

Because that is literally the only reason I can come up with for its existence.

It’s highly likely that at least the Storm King himself was not aware that ponies are in charge of the solar cycle, or he would expect this ability, or treat the invasion of Equestria with a lot more caution. Which is very, very,very fucking strange.

To be honest, I doubt many of Equestria's neighbors fully understand that the alicorn sisters move the celestial bodies. If they've even heard of it, they probably think it's a tall tale, some kind of religion, or propaganda. The only nation CONFIRMED to know of their powers is the Changeling Kingdom/Empire, since they knew to move the sun and moon while they had the princesses captured (no idea how many changelings it took to do this, but I imagine it took quite a few given the info from Horse Play).

The nature of the mass-architectural-recovery magic is never elaborated. Itcouldbe a massive scale failsafe spell. SeeThe Return of Harmony.

Hm... maybe the array was meant as a failsafe spell, and wasn't meant to be used with the staff? Honestly that's the only other thing I can come up with.

Additional glaring hole: Twilight is excited about the magic pearl DESPITE HAVING A SPELL FROM SEASON 4 THAT DOES THE EXACT SAME THING. Remember the Breezies episode? When they turned into Breezies? Yeah, that was dumb.

[Oliver]

4860772

To be honest, I doubt many of Equestria’s neighbors fully understand that the alicorn sisters move the celestial bodies. If they’ve even heard of it, they probably think it’s a tall tale, some kind of religion, or propaganda.

Would be plausible, but upon reflection, impossible: Any nation with navigational needs – any nation that has an airship fleet or sea fleet of any description – would eventually be frustrated with inevitably irregular motions of the sun and moon, times of sunset and sunrise, etc. Difference of a second matters. At this point, religion or propaganda would suddenly start sounding mighty plausible, especially considering absence of competing claims. Yes, sextants exist.

People who have just appeared on an alien world, however, could stay unaware for a decade, especially when their typical strategy consists of quick conquest, extended looting, and then leaving, as the prequel comic seems to imply.

[Shrink Laureate]

I just watched the movie again, and noticed something:

“You have visual on buttercream?” “Visual confirmed. Go for cleanup.” We have previously seen guards with earpieces in the series, but this is the only instance so far of them actually using said earpieces. Notice that this happens at a distance of no more than two meters. We basically have no evidence they work at range, and this is consistent with no-modulated-higher-frequencies restriction that I have previously proposed.

At the moment each of the guards speaks into their earpiece, their horn is lighting up. This means that the radios are either magic-based, or being activated by magic. That doesn't necessarily mean the actual transmission isn't by conventional radio, or that the devices aren't mundane electronics, but it reduces the options. There's some reason they were using magic at that point.

Also, since they're standing right there, the only reason they'd use radios (besides a joke) is to talk to other ponies not present - ie Songbird Serenade has more somewhere close by.

---

At 1:18, one of the storm troopers can be heard talking. You could be forgiven otherwise for thinking they can't.

[Oliver]

4901399

That doesn’t necessarily mean the actual transmission isn’t by conventional radio, or that the devices aren’t mundane electronics, but it reduces the options. There’s some reason they were using magic at that point.

Previously, such headsets were seen on earth ponies – notably, in For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils. If the radios required being magically powered by a unicorn for each transmission, earth ponies would be unable to use them, or would require a completely different system, which strikes me as ridiculous.

The most obvious explanation I can think of is “no vox.” That is, the portable radios are not sufficiently advanced to offer voice-activated transmission, and pushing a button is required to transmit, so these particular guys are using a magic-based trigger for this, because they can.

Also, since they’re standing right there, the only reason they’d use radios (besides a joke) is to talk to other ponies not present - ie Songbird Serenade has more somewhere close by.

Probably, but I doubt they’re further than the next street over.

At 1:18, one of the storm troopers can be heard talking. You could be forgiven otherwise for thinking they can’t.

Well, they do talk in the comics… a little…