I distract you from your villain discussions with Tabitha and Tara trying to out silly the other.

edited 11th Nov '12 1:15:11 PM by Calnos

Sombra really should have set up an endless staircase illusion.

And made it so you could only reach the Heart if the Scary Door was pointing straight down when you triggered it.

@D Roy: I really want to see that happen too, especially if it had a huge team-work theme to it.

@marston - Exactly; I really want to see some team-work fueled action.

I mean, come on, can I at least see Applejack kicking a villain in the face, Rainbow Dash executing tactical nuke, and Twilight unleash magical artillery?

Interesting note about Sombra losing his shadow form - HE looked surprised by it, too. And bearing in mind the shadow form wasn't his idea in the first place, but pretty much a curse... I wonder if that'll come back? Maybe the Crystal Heart has the power to cure... OOH! Brain Flash!

The silhouette of Sombra's defeat was pretty clearly Luna and Celestia, even if she didn't say it outright. Celestia has proven herself fully capable of using black magic. Twilight had to use a special kind of magic to get past the door's curse in Sombra's tower - lets call that 'pure' magic. What if Celestia and Luna used black magic to Curse Sombra, and the Heart utilizes Pure magic, when powered by the crystal ponies happiness? Pure Magic seems to beat Black Magic, so proximity removed the cure on Sombra. It would also explain why he seemed to 'explode' in it's presence - he's too full of black magic, so the heart 'purified' him, reducing him to.. whatever he was/will be?

on the subject of the girls using teamwork to defeat a villain

Reducing him to what he should be at the moment, considering it's been a thousand years:A pile of dust and a horn.

I like it.

edited 11th Nov '12 1:25:32 PM by Lopiny

Deus ex machina as in: "We have the power of love on our side, but ours is the frigging Death Star laser.

edited 11th Nov '12 1:34:57 PM by VeniVidiPony

@Calnos: Oh those silly V As and their insanely high-pitched voices.

I wonder if it was the Elements that turned him into living shadow, or someething else.

Seems to be something of a swiss-army magic, the Elements.

Nightmare Moon was stripped of the dark powers that granted her strength and corrupted Luna's mind further, reducing her to what she once was. However, when Celestia used them by herself, it "merely" trapped her within the moon.

Both times it was used on Discord, it transformed him into a statue of stone. The second time (and presumably, the first time), it wiped the effects of his chaos magic from the land.

And presumably, when it was used on Sombra, it transformed him into living shadow, and bound him within the ice.

I wonder if there's a common connection between them. It seems that the Elements have the power to transform, cleanse, and bind. It bound Nightmare Moon into the moon, bound Discord within his own stone shape, and bound Sombra within the ice. It transformed Discord into stone, and Sombra into shadow. It cleansed the dark power from Luna, and purged Discord's influence from the world.

I would almost think that the elements reveal the truth in the target's heart. It returned Luna to what she truly was, and gave King Sombra a form as black as his heart. But that doesn't really jive with Discord...

Argh. It's too mysterious. I want to find a connection.

Simple: The elements of Harmony quell Chaos. It removed the chaos from Luna's heart, calming her. Even later in the series we see her a bit moody, so she had some natural chaos that was stripped by the elements, but returned.

Discord is ALL chaos, but he's too powerful to completely destroy, so the elements neutralized him - turned him to stone. Like an acid interacting with a base.

I honestly don't believe the elements were responsible for Sombra. Until proven otherwise, I'm going to assume that Luna and Celestia cursed him with Black Magic.

The flashback shows that it was apparently a joint effort between the two sisters, and the magic used on him seems to take the telltale "rainbow beam" form used by the Elements.

@Enlong - I believe that your speculation is beyond the scope of the considerations of the writers.

The magic seems more to me like a mixture of light and shadow magic.

Also headcanoning that after looking into the Scary Door Luna was too shaken up, full of fear, hate etc to be able to use the Elements so when Sombra attacked figuring they were at their weakest without them they had to fight him without them.

edited 11th Nov '12 1:44:50 PM by Badwolfwho

But speculating far beyond the scope of the writers is too much fun.

I don't.

@Enlong - Exactly; I was not implying that it was something bad.

Hardly few speculative writers realize the full potential and complexity of their stories.

not enough Rarity.

Yeah, I really doubt the elements had anything to do with him. Heck, Celestia and Luna might have taken him out before they used the elements. Either that or they didn't think it was worth the trouble or something.

I think it would be worth the trouble to use them on him. I mean remember what he could pull with the Crystal Heart, putting an air of fear and hatred over all of Equestria. It's possible with that in play the Elements couldn't even be used not dissimilar to when the Mane Six were Discorded. Also Sombra must have been ridiculously good at magic. Not only did he still have the flowy mane and smoke eyes in the past but he also turned his curse into a strength. Now I don't think Celestia and Luna would curse him with awesome, so I'm thinking he slowly altered it over the thousand years and doing that must also take skill. Plus even as he was being defeated he cast a curse of sealing away the Crystal Empire which must take a lot of power.

Purchased today the following from Hot Topic - Vinyl Derpy Hooves, pack of trading cards, crystal Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie and a Rainbow Dash "Brony" armband. 25% off everything and received a Mane Six vs. Nightmare Moon cut-out stand set as a bonus. The clerk asked me who my favorite character was (answer: Twilight Sparkle.) When you purchase Pony stuff at Wal-mart or Target, they might ask you if you have a daughter. At Hot Topic, they know better than to assume that.

Is that all official stuff? I keep hearing people suggesting that a fair amount of Hot Topic's stuff is actually bootleg.

It's probably licensed, otherwise they'd get their butts sued off. It's not officially made by Hasbro, but they probably get a cut of it.

My reasoning to the elements being absent is that the elements are usually used to clean up anything made of on disharmonious concepts (chaos, NMM's corruption by sorrow), while Sombra, while causing sorrow, by himself is just a unicorn.

edited 11th Nov '12 2:11:31 PM by Lopiny

On the other hand they were willing to use it on Chrysalis, who while powerful is just a changeling. Unless Changelings are inherently "disharmonious" or something.

They are probably just moving further away from using them as the standard solution of the day. That and this seasons more about Twilight then friendship in general anyway.