Points of Canon: My Little Pony Movie Prequel

I’ll be doing these four as a single unit, because they are continuous. Also, they’re kinda meh, but you knew that.

Part #1

• The very first page contains a map which doesn’t match any known map in any way.

  • It contains “Abyssinia” and “Land of the Hippogriffs” – however, according to it, Klugetown lies directly south of open seas, on the same continent as Abyssinia, if not outright within their territory. Map coloring would suggest it is indeed within. And northwest of them is Land of the Hippogriffs, which, according to the movie, is an island, which has no neighbors on the big movie map. And yes, this comic’s map has a marked north.
  • Land of the Hippogriffs contains marked places named “Buckbeak” and “Dore.”
  • Abyssinia has “Tabbytown,” “Henry,” “Catskills,” “Siam,” and a “Litterbox Ridge.”
• Storm King is cited as “Conqueror of a dozen lands, destroyer of a dozen more.” Unless it’s entirely figurative, it would imply that at least 24 other nations existed.
• Storm King’s airships use both sails and propellers.
• Storm King is metafictionally aware: he directly addresses the reader and turns the page.
• The nature of Storm King’s aide, one “Strife,” is never elaborated, but he looks like an umbrum, which first appear in person in the Siege of the Crystal Empire (Friendship is Magic #34-37).
• The capital of Abyssinia is the city named Panthera.
• “After the invasion, I should do something for the soldiers. You know, like a pizza party! Or a funny hat day! Something to show I appreciate all their hard work pillaging and looting!” I’m not going to comment on that other than to say that pizza is a food popular outside Equestria too.
• “Let’s make another empire fall!” Storm King calls Abyssinia an empire, however, I suspect he’s talking figuratively.
• Abyssinia is populated by sapient cats. The architecture is distinctively similar to a cat tree, and local shops sell yarn, kibble and milk.
• September is hiding in the window of a yarn shop, so if nothing else, the place has occasional pony visitors.
• Storm King’s army does not employ any visible weapons better than medieval, and the cats do not appear to put up any significant resistance – but presumably, they can’t anymore, since the capital is the last place to be taken.
• The royal family of Abyssinia are black cats.
• “I know I call myself a ‘king’, but frankly, monarchy just isn’t my thing. You take over one country, next thing you’re dealing with taxes and committees and retirement packages!” Social security and a certain level of government by representation is the norm in most monarchies of Pony Earth, it appears.
• “You wouldn’t believe the upkeep on all those airships.” First time we heard of the notion of government spending outright, actually.
• “Abyssinia is a trade nation – we need our wealth to import crops, feed our citizens, build our homes!” This one speaks for itself, but here’s a thing: The map of trade routes the king illustrates this with does not match even the map on the first page, since it depicts a body of land that is north of open seas.
• “That’s the Misfortune Malachite! No one should use its power! The Malachite brings bad luck and woe to any who possesses it. Whoever holds it for too long, or who uses its power will come to ruin!” This MacGuffin remains mostly a non-MacGuffin throughout this mini-series, but notice that this object was in Abyssinian king’s treasury. Even the Storm King comments on this.
• “Why have you destroyed Abyssinia?” That’s our excuse for why we won’t see any cats again, I think: taking away the treasury is expected to result in the collapse of their nation and a mass felinitarian cat-astrophe.
• Despite being a very benevolent boss, the Storm King still expounds on friendship being a weakness for some reason.
• Storm King writes a diary. Decorated with flowers and hearts. The diary is marked with four letters arranged in a square: S|K, Q|C. I hope he didn’t mean Queen Chrysalis, but I don’t know anyone else who would use those initials.
• According to the Storm King, the invasion of Abyssinia was “small.”
• Storm King spends a whole page talking to the audience, making a statement that his origin and the source of his desire to conquer do not matter in the slightest. The pictures in his diary that he illustrates this with include a globe.
• And then out of the blue he is attacked by parrot pirates, who are stealing his “treasure ships,” plural, as part of the plot arranged by the aforementioned Strife, who ordered the sentries off-duty to make it possible.
• The pirates fly at least four ships of their own. The ships they actually stole appear to hide out of the frame all the time.
• No Mare in the Moon, so this event definitely postdates Friendship is Magic.
• Grubber gets Strife’s job precisely because “You are too cowardly to ever attempt to betray me, are you not? Too spineless to consider your own wants, aren’t you?” which should have bitten Storm King in the ass, but didn’t.

Part #2

The beginning of that is set earlier than Part #1.

• “Afternoon, Ralph.” “Afternoon, Sam.” Storm King’s faceless masked soldiers appear to be the same species as him, but I do wonder how did they come by these names. And why not Wedge and Biggs, for that matter?…
• Celaeno is seeking “gold doubloons” in addition to other valuables. A doubloon is a very specific golden coin, and I wonder how the Pony Earth came by any.
• The cargo of this particular ship is wallpaper paste and sand, which explains the absence of guards on one hand, but presents another question: Why would the Storm King want this stuff hauled by his soldiers at all?

• A message from Strife arrives as a bottle mysteriously drops onto the deck with a lightning bolt.

  • That doesn’t look like a teleport, but there nowhere else for the bottle to appear from.
  • The method of delivery is outright unique: an image of Strife appears from the smoke contained within the bottle. Notably, the pirates do not initially recognize this as a message at all, so this is not a commonly used method.
  • Strife addresses Celaeno by name, which, I believe, implies that he had been deliberately holding back the investigation of Celaeno’s piracy as well as sending a task force to hunt them down. He would need to precisely know their location to deliver a message in the first place, wouldn’t he?
  • “In two moons time, the Storm King’s treasure fleet will be moving through this pass. His ships will be loaded with the treasures of the Abyssinian Kingdom.” See RTAC #11. Notice that this implies a very steady rate of conquest: The Storm King returns together with his treasure fleet, and says that this completes his invasion. It’s pretty clear that the bulk of the treasure was seized in the last day of the invasion from the treasury of the Abyssinian king. Knowing the day even two weeks in advance would be quite a feat.
• The pirates use what looks like a gun-launched harpoon for boarding. The smoke implies black powder rather than later explosives. Later on, Storm King’s troops use a very similar one, so it must be standard equipment for aerial warfare.
• “Take us in to the flagship! We need to pick up our passenger!” A further communication from Strife had to have followed, because his original message did not say anything about recovering him.
• When we finally get any evidence of ships actually being stolen, we see that the pirates successfully got away with three of them.
• Among the treasure we can see a golden one bit coin with a crescent moon on it.
• Celaeno says, “I never trusted magic much.” Similarly, the Abyssinian king said that Abyssinia does not have much use for magic. That paints the lands outside Equestria as relatively magic-poor places.
• Celaeno calls the cats “Abyssinians” rather than “cats,” upon discovering Capper and Chummer. Now, Abyssinians are a cat breed, but neither of the two is anything like them, so this has to be the correct way to call this species in general. Celaeno also refers to them as “the kids,” implying that she can tell their age.
• One of the pirate ships – or is it a Storm King’s ship? – has what looks suspiciously like the back end of a cannon, but they never get used during this battle.
• Strife’s punishment is being thrown overboard, his further fate uncertain.
• Upon capture, Celaeno is immediately offered the position of the “right-hand creature.” Notice that the Storm King has not, apparently, even attempted to fill the post with anyone of his own species – Grubber might match the colors, but definitely isn’t one of them. This offer is rescinded once she lets the cats escape with one of the ships, and she gets to run a cargo hauler instead.

Part #3

• Chummer crashes the ship, which can’t maintain altitude. The interesting part is that the ship’s wheel includes no visible control axis for altitude, so I’m not sure how is that supposed to work – he definitely could not pull it like an aircraft’s control wheel.

• 1. Many of ours don’t.

  The airship was equipped with a life ring which was marked “S.S. Minnow” – I don’t see Gilligan around, though. If the airship was indeed called that, it would imply at least some nations of Pony Earth use ship prefixes,¹ though in that case I wonder what the first “S” means.

• After the crash, the envelope deflates entirely, indicating this was, at least, not a rigid envelope airship. Though in any reasonable case, it would contain multiple independent gas bags, which wouldn’t all pop at once…
• The first thing the cats do upon arrival to Klugetown is steal fruit from a stall by convincing the salesturtle that someone else took one. That said, some orkoid had just tried to pickpocket them immediately prior.
• Chummer and Capper explicitly squat in the windmill that Capper lives in during the actual movie. Apparently, nobody thought to evict him or was otherwise interested in the place. Also, all the stuff Capper has accumulated in there had to have been acquired after the events described here. That’s a rather impressive rate of acquiring stuff no matter how you spin it, especially considering that the night before they hand over the Misfortune Malachite to Verko, they are still sleeping in a wash basin and a cardboard box, respectively.
• “We were orphans on the street back in Abyssinia, too.” Abyssinia had a laxer standard of social security than Equestria.

• 2. At least, I think that is what they are… Or are they just moles? Inconclusive.

  “We can’t be the only thieves in this town. There’s got to be someone running this place.” It remains unclear if Klugetown has any solid authority other than criminal, because the only one we see is the mole-rats² in suits, who answer to Verko. At the same time, there’s a wanted poster for Chrysalis and a “Beware of cat burglars” announcement posted on a pole, and someone has to be posting those.

• “And before you get any tricky ideas, look where it is. Your big strong henchmen would be too heavy to cross the plank!”

  • So the cats want to sell the Misfortune Malachite to Verko. The problem with this plan is that the big strong henchmen wouldn’t need to cross the plank to acquire it: Breaking it and stretching a tarp on the street beneath to catch it would suffice. For whatever reason, Verko does not use this obvious solution, but elects to pay the cats instead.
  • Verko instantly recognizes the Misfortune Malachite. While anyone familiar with its history could, in theory, pick up on that after some thinking, and Verko cites that it “toppled empires and started wars,” so he does know that history, he is strangely quick about it.
  • “How do two kids get ahold of a treasure of the Abyssinian royal family?” See Part #1. The misfortune is rather strange.
  • The cats’ price is “A skyship! Fully loaded! With cannons! And, and clothes! Uniforms! Cutlasses and compasses! Maps and globes! Everything a pirate needs!” Notice cannons.
• “I don’t want to keep running and stealing. I want to find a place where we can stop. I want to find a home.” Strange that Capper should say that right after he traded the Malachite for pirate gear – that line listing their requests was a chorus. This admission, however, as well as Capper’s repeated statement that he wants friendship from Chummer, but does not want to be a thief the way Chummer wants, gets Chummer to betray him the next morning.
• “That skyship’s nearly brand new, you know. Cost me a pretty penny from Judge Errant.” Wait, who’s that? Verko never elaborates.
• The supplies on the ship contain, among other things, canned tuna.

• 3. sic!

  As Chummer drops from the ship, he ends up falling onto the convenient pile of foam rubber, marked with “Foam rubber in it’s³ crude form.” Next to a sign saying “Foam rubber wholesalers convention.” See chemical industry: Foam rubber was first produced in 1929 but widespread use only came later. Actually, why would wholesalers of foam rubber want to have a convention in this hive of scum and villainy anyway?

• This incident is basically the source of Capper’s debt to Verko.

Part #4

• “Dear journal: I have come so far, and yet still I have not found what I seek. I can’t remember how many moons it’s been since I left Equestria. My home. I’ve seen so much, been to so many places, after I lost so much, and now I am far from Equestria.”
• At the time of this narration, Fizzlepop already has a scar across her eye, and is in the desert near to Klugetown. It remains entirely uncertain just when did she leave Equestria. The moon is crescent. Since this scene has to postdate the theft of the Malachite from the Storm King, it’s in any case after Year 1.
• Fizzlepop stumbles on the crashed ship Chummer stole, and it’s still burning, so it’s probably the night of the same day that part #3 ends with.
• “Yer under arrest! That gem belongs to the Storm King!” Unfortunately, Grubber isn’t likely to know whether he’s using the word “arrest” correctly, so we don’t know if this part of the desert is actually part of Storm King’s territory or not.
• I’m not sure why Fizzlepop attempts magic at all when trying to get away from Grubber and company. It’s interesting in that it behaves more like a liquid spilling out of the broken horn than anything else, though.

• “Now entering the free city of Klugetown. No weapons. No square dance calling. No changelings. No umbrum.”

  • How the hell did enough umbrum turn up in this desert for this sign to exist, I have no idea.
  • “No weapons” sounds more than a bit dubious in a hive of scum and villainy.
• Street vendors advertise “Weird trinkets!” “Plot devices!” and “Things!” and I hope for their sake a “plot device” is a drafting table.
• According to the bar patrons, the Storm King has “already got half the world under his thumb” and is engaged in a major campaign of seeking magical items – “if it glows, he’s comin’ for it.”
• One of the patrons is a diamond dog. Another is some kind of a sapient jackalope.
• “I hesitate to use my own magic – unpredictable as it has been since I lost my horn – but I must risk it.” Since it has been predictable before she lost her horn, Fizzlepop’s run in with the Ursa had to have happened after she acquired some use of it, which implies she was already school age or very close – judging by known examples, Twilight and Sweetie Belle.
• Investigating the magic in the Malachite requires the use of magic in turn.
• I have to quote that one in full: “Beware. Beware the Misfortune Malachite. I thought to use the gem’s power for my own gain, but I found only ruin. The Malachite’s magic became my undoing. Rid yourself of this stone at once! It will only change your life for the worse! Its power is a trap! All power is a trap.” Fizzlepop judges this to be a memory of a previous owner of the gem, but we have no idea if she is correct or not.
• “So this is the Misfortune Malachite. I thought the gem was a legend, but apparently, it is all too real.” I wonder where did she hear the legend in the first place. Was it Equestria or somewhere else?
• “I haven’t seen another pony in years!” Rambler is the only pony ever encountered in Klugetown, but he is part of a caravan, so we can’t say much of anything about Klugetown’s pony population or lack thereof based on that. If it exists, it’s probably very low. The caravan itself does appear to consist primarily of Klugetown style creatures, at that.
• “I lost what I defined myself by…” Fizzlepop defined herself primarily through her magic ability. Notably, her flashback depicts her with no cutie mark and already without a horn, but it has no sign of a scar. I actually wonder, does she even have a mark? While, when the Storm King turns up, Rambler attempts to lead his soldiers away by wearing Fizzlepop’s cape, she conveniently covers up her rump with her tail afterwards.
• The caravan traverses a coniferous forest fully covered in snow. Which is apparently within a day’s walk from Klugetown, because Rambler still hasn’t had a chance to ask Fizzlepop for her name. The only place for such a forest is somewhere beneath the Sea of Clouds.
• By that time, not only someone saw Fizzlepop with the Malachite, which she kept mostly hidden under her robes, but also, they had a chance to draw wanted posters of her. That’s some rather observant Klugetowners.
• “‘Anypony,’ that’s cute.” Other species don’t seem to use species qualifier suffixes.
• So the Storm King offers Tempest his aide’s position, in exchange for giving up the Malachite, but he destroys the thing immediately, and Fizzlepop, who just invented the name “Tempest,” points him towards Equestria.

Some analysis

This is far less useful than it could be.

• Both maps in here are definitely bogus.
• They seem to want to position Equestria as the Magical Land among a wasteland of non-magic, but without it, those airships wouldn’t fly, umbrum and changelings would not be themselves and Strife’s message could not be sent.
• Klugetown having contact with changelings I can well believe – Badlands are supposed to be close – but how the hell did any umbrum end up this far south at all, including Strife?
• Storm King required someone to point him towards Equestria at all. Which is dubious in the extreme for obvious reasons.
• For someone in debt to Verko, Capper has collected way too much stuff in his home, way too fast – since the beginning of these events postdates Year 1, no more than four years had to have elapsed since Capper came to Klugetown.
• The Misfortune Malachite is just as rootless as the Storm King himself: We never find out what kind of power, if any, does it offer the wielder, only that it’s “misfortune.” The actual level of misfortune inflicted appears to have nothing whatsoever to do with its magic, but rather revolves entirely around simple greed. In the end the Storm King simply crushes it, which makes it a mystery why hasn’t this happened a long time ago.

And I’m pretty sure the authors of this particular comic are perfectly aware of all of its faults, but no amount of self-irony is going to cover them up. It certainly does nothing to help stitching the movie into the continuity with the series.

Comments

[iisaw]

I'm willing to bet that Abyssinia got it's name from a writer who knew about Abyssinian cats, but didn't know that Abyssinia is a very real country... well region nowadays. Otherwise, it would be just as sensible to name an Equestrian country France.

“Afternoon, Ralph.” “Afternoon, Sam.”  is from the Warner Bros. Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog cartoons.

[Comnislasher]

They seem to want to position Equestria as theMagical Land among a wasteland of non-magic, 

Maybe it's a Russian translation but I get as that Equestria has biggest ammount of magic on planet and not that magic outside of Equestria don't exist. Maybe it's also that ponies have natural affinity for magic while other races can hardly feel or use it?

[Oliver]

4729320

I suspect it’s more of a translation artifact. Early series, which contains the most statements regarding Equestria’s magical nature, hardly acknowledges anything outside Equestria exists at all, so it’s not very conclusive on the subject. Equestria of Season 1 appears to be a city-scale-country-in-a-vacuum, not entirely unlike the ones in Kino no Tabi – wherein the protagonist travels between them somehow, but they otherwise never come into contact, and are radically different culturally and technologically. They know travelers exist, but everything outside the borders of each one is a total blank. S1 Equestria would sit just fine somewhere on Kino’s route.

1. Incidentally, this is proof that Twilight’s Kingdom was actually completed before most of the Season 4: It still uses the Season 2 map without the Crystal Empire on it.

The first map was released during Season 2, and is mostly the same as the big movie one, but any proper sense of geography in the series proper only turns up with Season 3, as the Crystal Empire acquires a position relative to Equestria. (“North.”) The map gets updated midway through Season 4,¹ and from then on starts getting used more or less earnestly, with emphasis on “less.” None of the maps up until the S5 one included anything which could be interpreted as a place outside Equestria, or at least, outside the control of Celestia’s government.

That said, Tirek’s FIENDship is Magic #2, which is one of those rare sources entirely set outside Equestria’s borders, portrays Equestria as a land much richer in magic than wherever Tirek is from, and describes Tirek as coveting it, so it’s not exactly unprecedented. But even that has gargoyles flying, which wouldn’t be possible without magic.

[Mitch H]

The Sea of Clouds appears in the official map, and is not mentioned or pictured in the movie.

I don't think any of the canonical writers have picked up on the fanon usage of 'plot' for obvious reasons.

Umbrum use threatens to bifurcate canon into a solid comic continuity and a Legends of Magic tv continuity.

I think SS would be short for Sail Ship?

[Oliver]

4729343

The Sea of Clouds appears in the official map, and is not mentioned or pictured in the movie.

They actually fly through it, kind of, without ever drawing attention to it.

I don’t think any of the canonical writers have picked up on the fanon usage of ‘plot’ for obvious reasons.

Someone selling a literal plot device would be worse.

Umbrum use threatens to bifurcate canon into a solid comic continuity and a Legends of Magic tv continuity.

So do the dragons of the Fillydelphia ghetto, which reappear in My Little Pony #58 in a story featuring Cattail that directly follows A Health of Information. What solid continuity?

I think SS would be short for Sail Ship?

Wouldn’t it be an SA then, Sail Airship?

[iisaw]

4729347

Wouldn’t it be an SA then, Sail Airship?

How about Sky Ship? The word skyship was used in the comic.

[schpeelah]

Despite being a very benevolent boss, the Storm King still expounds on friendship being a weakness for some reason.

The main thrust of it seems to be "I reserve the right to betray any and all you". At least, that's probably Strife's takeaway from this.

Storm King writes a diary. Decorated with flowers and hearts. The diary is marked with four letters arranged in a square: S|K, Q|C. I hope he didn’t mean Queen Chrysalis, but I don’t know anyone else who would use those initials.

Maybe QC is just the initials of his real name?

“Afternoon, Ralph.” “Afternoon, Sam.” Storm King’s faceless masked soldiers appear to be the same species as him, but I do wonder how did they come by these names. And why not Wedge and Biggs, for that matter?…

Here's one without the mask:
derpicdn.net/img/view/2017/10/31/1574979__safe_starlight+glimmer_trixie_my+little+pony-colon-+the+movie_spoiler-colon-my+little+pony+movie_female_gameloft_guitar_mare_pony_stage_storm+.jpeg

“Yer under arrest! That gem belongs to the Storm King!” Unfortunately, Grubber isn’t likely to know whether he’s using the word “arrest” correctly, so we don’t know if this part of the desert is actually part of Storm King’s territory or not.

It probably is since by the time the movie rolls around Kludgetown uses storm bucks as currency.

Klugetown having contact with changelings I can well believe – Badlands are supposed to be close – but how the hell did any umbrum end up this far south at all, including Strife?

Must be the ones who escaped the initial seal 1000 years ago.

It certainly does nothing to help stitching the movie into the continuity with the series.

What?

[Oliver]

4729693

Maybe QC is just the initials of his real name?

Considering how intent he is on stating that his origin does not matter, why would he use the initials of his real name at all?

It probably is since by the time the movie rolls around Kludgetown uses storm bucks as currency.

Doesn’t say as much as it could, considering that bit coins are valuable too, including for Storm King himself…

What?

What do you mean “what?”

[DannyJ]

I kind of liked how much we got to see of non-Equestrian lands, but the uselessness of the maps is a major hindrance to trying to understand the borders or origin of the Storm King's little empire. If he and his minions are all the same species, they must come from somewhere, but I don't think it's the Kludgetown area. And this guy really needed a proper backstory here, because the movie itself certainly doesn't give him one.

[howard035]

Great analysis. At a high level, this kind of confirms the idea that the world is far, far bigger than just Equestria (movie confirms it at least). The fact that there are dozens of kingdoms the Storm King has "conquered" (I think he just sacks them for wealth and leaves), and a wealthy nation that relies almost entirely on trade gives us some idea of their scope. It's also important to note that despite all this, in the movie Equestria had never heard of the Storm King, which suggests it is fairly isolated.

I think "magic" is once again being used only to refer to things like unicorn magic and spells. As you pointed out, their world needs magic in many other ways to function, but they act like magic is extremely rare. For example, I bet Pegasus magic or Griffon magic or some other bird species helps gather and float those airships, but because they don't use spells they don't call it magic.

One big point: I don't think Strife is an Umbrum. His appearance is very different from theirs. What he looks a lot like is the corrupted version of the moon creatures from the Nightmare Rarity comic arc, ex Shadowfright.
vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/9/97/Shadowfright_ID_Issue_6.png/revision/latest?cb=20140310195313

Thanks for letting us know the Abyssinians are a species name and not just a nationality. All the other species are still undefined on the wiki, I am annoyed that Captain Celeano is listed as a parrot. One thing I like about these comics is they went out of their way to subvert the trope of Pirates that Do Nothing at All with Celeano's crew.

Last thought: Do you think the Gorgon Grenades made of pieces of the Misfortune Malachite? The bits of malachite look like the cores of the grenades, but there's not a lot of evidence either way.

[Oliver]

4730529

It’s also important to note that despite all this, in the movie Equestria had never heard of the Storm King, which suggests it is fairly isolated.

They’re Americans, what else do you expect. :)

Last thought: Do you think the Gorgon Grenades made of pieces of the Misfortune Malachite? The bits of malachite look like the cores of the grenades, but there’s not a lot of evidence either way.

No. The core of the Gorgon Grenades is definitely a crystal, with sharply defined, flat surfaces. The Misfortune Malachite is consistently drawn as a rock, with ragged, uneven surfaces. The color of the smoke from the grenades sort of resembles the Malachite, but that’s not a very good indication.

[Shrink Laureate]

Most of the characters in these comics are so full of that we can't believe a word they say.

They do serve to establish the fact that the world is much larger than just Equestria. There have been theories suggested that the planet is so tiny it only has a couple of countries on it, and this debunks those.

“I lost what I defined myself by…” Fizzlepop defined herself primarily through her magic ability. Notably, her flashback depicts her with no cutie mark and already without a horn, but it has no sign of a scar. I actually wonder, does she even have a mark? While, when the Storm King turns up, Rambler attempts to lead his soldiers away by wearing Fizzlepop’s cape, she conveniently covers up her rump with her tail afterwards.

They manage to avoid showing her Flank at any point, though the sort of careful framing usually only seen in a bath house or hot spring.

So the Storm King offers Tempest his aide’s position, in exchange for giving up the Malachite, but he destroys the thing immediately, and Fizzlepop, who just invented the name “Tempest,” points him towards Equestria.

That she, or anyone else, has the Malachite is a symbol of defiance. He doesn't care about the thing itself, but he cares about domination. Forcing her to give it up and then destroying it demonstrates that nobody can cross him.