Yeah, that's almost certainly an experience that would do weird things to your self-esteem. Of course, if you're introduced early enough it could work the other way; if you're always surrounded by others who are comparable to you in intellect and ability, you start to assume that as the average, and then you end up being shocked when you realize that you are, in fact, above average.

Makes her sounds like a supervillain...

Well, another tragic victim of the Equestrian school system, at any rate. When WILL Celestia realize how desperately our foals need school reform!?

Which would no doubt carry it's OWN set of problems...

edited 2nd May '13 10:45:29 AM by kegisak

Round 2: Flim & Flam VS. The Rock Farm

Or, the effects of an Elements spell are persistent, and don't require maintenance from the Elements themselves after he spell has been cast.

So, the effect of turning Discord to stone is an instantaneous thing, not something that is given upkeep after the fact.

In fact, it appears that the Elements themselves are necessary to reverse such a spell in any timely fashion.

edited 2nd May '13 10:48:40 AM by Enlong

It definitely would. I've seen people who have extremely unrealistic expectations of what others are capable of because they're so used to being surrounded by peers that they don't have an accurate frame of reference.

If that were true, he wouldn't have busted out after the elements changed bearers.

edited 2nd May '13 10:51:03 AM by JapaneseTeeth

I saw the breakdown the same way as JT.

But I know about the special-to-normal conversion you speak of. A lot of people would tell me I'm a genius (which I'd deny, but I at least knew that I was smart), but after honours I'd go, "No. I've worked with geniuses. I'm not one."

he finally made his saving throw.

Or; it took 1000 years for his power to build back up under there.

I'm still of the opinion that the Elements are merely the gun, and the users are both the ammo and the trigger. Well...Twi is the trigger...

Friendship Is Bullets

The Element of Magic is the targetting component. The Element of Laughter is the energising component which exponentially increases the energy of the bearers to power the Harmony Event.

I think the connection wasn't officially lost until they had new bearers.

Or the connection was severed but the magical effects were persistant, until the elements recalibrated to the new wielders, which caused the old magic to fade.

edited 2nd May '13 11:13:23 AM by kegisak

Or the breaking was coincidental, as Discord broke out about a year after the Second Endless Night.

Kegis idea is the one best supported by what was said in the episdoe.

I believed that the connection was lost with the new establishment like Storyyeller.

I dunno, it seems as though they were sitting in that castle a long time. I would even hypothesize that the castle and the surrounding forest was the site of their battle.

edited 2nd May '13 11:31:25 AM by Enlong

I'd say that they were dormant at that point. They were still kinda linked to Celestia and Luna, but couldn't really be used after Luna's banishment. In that state, they had passive powers like maintaining Discord's prison, but they couldn't be used to do much else. When the mane cast got them, they were activated.

So, you think tha when that happened, Discord's stone began to decay?

You know what I think would be a fun episode? If Cadence and Twilight were co-rulers of Ponyville/The Crystal Empire for a day and formed a little Spock / Mc Coy conflict with the Aesop being about finding a middle ground between logic and emotions. Twilight would assume that everypony wanted to have everything planned out in a strict schedule as much as she does, causing chaos when the average townspony can't keep up. Meanwhile Cadance is way too soft, not giving people any instructions beyond "help where you think you can" and most of her subjects either slack off or pile up around jobs people want to do effectively getting nothing done as well.

edited 2nd May '13 11:44:39 AM by RhymeBeat

And that's how Applejack becomes princess.

I really shouldn't find this funny...

"Dayum, zigga!"

This leads me to question if the word "Ass" would be an ethnic slur in Equestria.

...KFC is bankrupt?

Good point.

edited 2nd May '13 11:58:03 AM by ApplelightLimited

Though it doesn't help that the universe seems to hate non-pony/zebra equines. (Still annoyed about that).