Most AUs have a single point where What If is the biggest, a single shift in history that starts off a chain reaction. For us, it seems to be Nathusa... but that doesn't make any sense, since certain elements were changed before his intervention, and he's more of a lore twist; that is to say he could exist in canon but offscreen, therefore he can't be quite considered AU. So the question is... where's the AU? What, exactly, is different? What shifted?

Our answer, surprisingly, lies in the Crystal Empire. Specifically with Sombra.

In canon, he opposed Luna and Celestia's intervention. But here... even though he did all those horrible things... he stood down when they walked up. How does that affect Nathusa? I'm not sure yet. That's what this thread is about: Why is Nathusa different if Sombra is different?

1954767 Wouldn't it be the fact that Nathusha took over the world?

1955020

Like I said, some things happened BEFORE Nathusa taking over the world that are different then canon. Specifically, the crystal empire was apparently still around when the flooding began, despite having been defeated prior to Nightmare Moon in canon.

1954767

Why is Nathusa different if Sombra is different?

They may not be affiliated at all. It's an AU, so that means that in this one Nathusha decided to react to the power shift, while in other AU's he just didn't (Unless we have different definitions of AU )

Me and Vocal talked about this and I have altered the lore accordingly. Basically, Canon Sombra fight/banishment happened, but the Crystal empire returned after the flood but earlier then expected because spoilers.