I HAVE CRACKED THE CODE!!! · 1:30am Apr 15th, 2015
It's become very well believed that our new little villain, Starlight Glimmer, is going to make a return at some point in Season 5, most likely the finale. But what if she came back with somepony? I've taken looks at how she would work alongside some of the other villains where a return was possible, ie: Sombra and Chrysalis. But what if there were another? One we had not yet seen? It all starts here, where Hasbro tried to cleverly hide the identity of their "big reveal."
At 1:55 in this video, Brian Lenard is shown trying to tell the viewers what special thing they have planned for the season. I have narrowed it down to to two possibilities: The CMCs Cutie Marks, or Star Swirl the Bearded. These are the only two trends in Friendship is Magic that have ever been built up over multiple seasons. I find it more likely that the former is the reveal, and I AM hyped for that, but I see some interesting connections with the Star Swirl option.
As you know, Star Swirl the Bearded, as told by Celestia herself, was not able to understand true friendship. Notice the key word: true. Throughout the Cutie Map, we see Starlight Glimmer claiming that equality is the only way to true friendship. Whether or not she believes in this philosophy is unimportant. In fact, if she doesn't it only makes my point stronger. Before we go into detail about that, though, have a look at this.
Starlight Glimmer's cutie mark depicts a single star alongside some oddly-shaped swirlly decals. "Oh, so what? Her cutie mark matches Deus Ex Gandalf's name. How does that mean anything?" Well there is a certain trend that we've already seen regarding cutie marks and their namesake. Since their names also share a connection: Starlight, Star Swirl, I can safely make the comparison to the Apple Family. Every single member of the Apple Family has a name relating to their cutie mark, and share a common theme of names. Although we've never seen old Beardy's cutie mark, we still have the same connection between him and Starlight.
Now what about their motives? As I've already stated, Starlight Glimmer's goal was to spread equality across Equestria, making herself more powerful than everypony else. In order to do this, however, Starlight needed everyone to be 100% convinced that equality was the key to happiness, and used brainwashing tactics to do so. Star Swirl isn't without his own way of handling situations, either. Star Swirl did the deeds of banishing the sirens, who otherwise would spread their dark magic across the land and cause disharmony and inspire everypony to dominate each other. He was also quite friendly to Scorpan, who wished only to live amongst the ponies as equals before returning home. Star Swirl clearly values this idea of harmony and everyone getting along without any sort of conflict. Out of context, this sounds like a good role model for Twilight to follow, and is the reason he helped her in her studies. However, we cannot forget that Star Swirl did not understand true friendship, which cancels out the option of Star Swirl having a positive influence on Equestrian society. The only remaining option is that he was master of magic that used his power to achieve the same goal that Starlight had sent out for.
This is more than just two characters sharing the same motives on their own. What we see here is a bloodline. Starlight Glimmer, who I believe to be a decedent of Star Swirl the Bearded himself, had her magical knowledge passed down for generations to pursue the family dream. It wasn't a natural born talent, either. Starlight clearly states that she had practiced the spell for years, which makes her relationship with Equestria's most famous wizard and spell writer that much more likely. I'm Phoenix Frost, and I challenge Ink Rose to a headcanon-off.
Not only all that, but what did that unfinished spell of Starswirl's do? Changed cutie marks.