Ponies love radiation!

I bet anything that Sombra's horn will land somewhere for Trixie to find.

And then Trixie was a demon.

Let's face it - Sombra wasn't exactly high on the 'dangerous bad guy' list. He had Shining at his mercy and all he did was prevent him from using his magic?

Ooh. Scawwy. Cadance was doing the majority of the work anyway.

edited 10th Nov '12 9:51:15 PM by VeniVidiPony

Nightmare Moon was exposed ot a normally lethal amount of rainrad, which exposed the pony underneatth, who was effectively immune to the effects of such.

It seems I might be viewed in Equestria as a political dissident, seeing as I think Luna should have go at being in charge and I think Cadence is a better soldier than Shiny.

Well, I'm off to be banished.

In addition, alicorns are pretty much immune to Rainrad and C-Variant Rainrad. Nightmare Moon was a symbiote using Luna as a host.

edited 10th Nov '12 9:52:09 PM by Steventheman

Your thoughts on the lunabook?

You know Steve, I hear the Moon is lovely this time of year...

Interesting Theory

Pinkie and Cadance are both descended from refugees from the Crystal Kingdom seeking asylum in Equestria.

Yeah, NASA stopped nuking the surface and the Watatsuki Sisters have finally grudgingly allowed visitor visas.

edited 10th Nov '12 9:54:46 PM by AceOfScarabs

The Moon is for symbiote-infectees only.

I'll be sent to Tartarus.

Be back in 10 minutes, after I grow bored and take over the place.

I think the former and the latter are connected somehow.

@Enlong: Which former and latter?

I did a weird perspective thing. But it contains hugs. Everyone likes pony hugs, right?

RE: Luna Book

It's her diary. She just happened to have it.

@Kuroi: Yay, hugs :3

Fanfic: Fur and Feathers. The pets are now ponies!

They're both pink. Clearly that is evidence of a connection.

I just thought Pinkie was descended from a long line of very boring ponies, until she was irradiated.

In addition, her kids will most likely destroy the universe.

@Enlong, regarding your post a few pages back: Bear in mind that the crystaline aspect doesn't seem to be 'unique' to the Crystal ponies, since the rest of the cast had it at the end as well. In fact, it seems to be an aspect of the heart - it's possible that their connection to the heart was simply made so strong by generations of being near it that they developed an inborn line to the heart. So while the girls had to be exposed to 'heart' radiation, the crystal ponies are born naturally irradiated.

I can't say for sure that the heart is tied to the specific tribe. After all, the magic seems to work for all of them. To be honest though, Considering Fluttershy's basically got EP magic going on and seems to put animals at ease, and Pinkie's skill at making people... happy... not to mention AJ's motherliness. It wouldn't surprise me if an element of the Earth Ponies 'connection to the earth' was also a connection to the things of the earth - ponies included. In other words, 'mood magic'.

What I'm getting at is, I think the EP's may be the cause and not the effect. I think it's possible that their presence, the concentrated presence of nothing but Earth Ponies, forged the heart itself. A concentrated gem of mood magic.

Or, in reverse, the huge amount of EP magic coming from the stone could have altered the ponies around it, eventually mutating all of them into EP's over several generations. Which is probably more likely, since it explains their connection to the stone in a way that also explaions why then Pinkie and AJ and fluttershy didn't get connected to it instantly as well.

In short? I don't think Sombra has anything to do with it. Whether it's the cause orthe effect, the Heart Stone is connected to the citizens on a very intrinsic level. It's magic is a part of them, and considering how deeply a pony's magic seems to be tied to their species(Barring a few oddities), I don't think it's an accident that they're all of the same species.

@Meta: It's more than that. Cadance having the Crystal Heart for her cutie mark suggests she is descended from the old deposed Royal Family of the Crystal Kingdom. Pinkie's family are rock crystal farmers, and her grandmother taught her how to use happy memories to deal with trauma (Giggle at the Ghosties) - On top of that, note how cheerful her parents become after she learns her ancestral power to bring good cheer. The Pies are descended from one of the former nobles who helped Cadance's ancestors flee Sombra when he took over the Crystal Kingdom, and they got naturalized to Equestria.

edited 10th Nov '12 10:05:12 PM by AceOfScarabs

So, I've come to a conclusion on Sombra. He's underdeveloped and in the background on purpose. Compare these episodes to A Canterlot Wedding and Raturn of Harmony. The villains in those got a lot of focus and screen time, and both suffered from pacing issues in the second half. With The Crystal Empire, keeping Sombra firmly in the background allowed the characters to be themselves and get focus on their actions as well as allowing the plot to develop at a more natural pace. The climax actually had proper build up with the escalating challenges Twilight and Spike faced. Overall, despite the fact that it messed with people's expectations of the episode, I think that keeping Sombra as a relative non-character fixed a lot of the pacing and focus issued that the other two-parters had.

Ever notice how everything happened a thousand years ago?

Man, that must've been a bitchin' awesome year.

Wonder if they have commemorative photos...

It was the year that Celestia was trying to give up drinking, and her enemies thought that it was a perfect time to attack.

A symbiote infected Luna, Discord attacked and Sombra was killed by a Equestrian assassin.

Needless to say, she went right back to drinking.

edited 10th Nov '12 10:14:07 PM by Steventheman

The former and latter I meant are the moon-nuking and the Watatsukis.

So, Ace, did I inspire that post of yours in that RPG.net thread?

As to you, Kegisak... Yeah, there could be a number of reasons for there being nothing but Earth Ponies in the Empire. But I think it is still significant that the Heart seemed to be inaccessible to Earth Ponies in particular.

I still think that Luna's corruption was her own doing, rather than an infection. She channeled a dark and terrible power, with the goal of surpassing Celestia and making her subjects fear her (if they would not love her), and that screwed with her head.

edited 10th Nov '12 10:17:02 PM by Enlong

By "everything", you mean all of two things, right? The Crystal Empire vanishing, and Nightmare Moon. That's it. Discord was some unknown amount of time before then, and Hearth Warming Eve was even farther back before that.

edited 10th Nov '12 10:16:09 PM by PerpetualLurker

@Enlong: Eeeee-yup.

Oh, maybe they realized that Shinto Gods low on Faith would not be able to keep tanking nukes.