My money. Take it all.

I still wanna see Female!Tirek though.

I once had this theory where Celestia designed it in such a way that Nightmare Moon's imprisonment would only last a thousand years, but made it seem to everyone else to be intended as permanent, because while she believed her sister would learn her lesson after a while, her subjects (the ponies) considered Nightmare Moon irredeemable, and Celestia didn't want to let them down. And if Nightmare Moon knew her sentence was limited, she might not change back to being just Luna.

So Celestia secretly set the moon and the stars to unlock after one thousand years, freeing Luna (who would hopefully not still be Nightmare). But she needed a fallback plan, if she came out still as Nightmare Moon. Celestia knew that using the elements herself would not work, as Nightmare would have a thousand years to develop a counter to her own sister's magic. So she disguised the unlocking mechanism as a prophecy, which no one would believe at first as anything other than some lunatic's hallucination. But she hoped that when the time came, someone might recognize the prophecy for what it was, and if worse came to worst, that they would know how to use the Elements of Harmony to stop Nightmare Moon a second time.

Also, Celestia doesn't really seem to have friends with which to share the elements of harmony with.

The start of the first episode seemed to imply that she is able to wield the elements all on her own.

edited 16th Apr '11 5:09:29 PM by KylerThatch

But perhaps it's more effective when divided amongst multiple users?

At the time Celestia used the elements, Nightmare Moon probably didn't have that much power or something.

She didn't seem to have that much power during the pilot, to be honest - all she ever really did was manipulate, trying to trick dash, casting a rather weak illusion on some trees, and making a manticore a bit upset. The only two times she did something physical were pretty weak - cutting off a mustache, and collapsing a cliff. Given that twilight could do those both pretty easily...I'm gonna push my nightmare moon was a separate entity controlling Luna via negative emotion theory some more, and say that she was probably fighting it.

'course, it's possible that the elements react differently depending on the users. I seriously doubt twilight had any real control over what the spell did - after all, she wouldn't have had the same connection to Luna as Celestia, she probably would have thought sending her back to the moon was the best option. They seemed pretty surprised to see Luna still around. Conversely, Celestia would have much more reason to want Luna to change her mind, rather that banishing her. Well, barring the Celestyrant option, at least.

This is pretty funny (It's a 'booru, so watch out for NSFW ads)

Trollestia?

edited 16th Apr '11 6:25:34 PM by SandJosieph

Alternatively, Nightmare Moon was still "waking up" after 1000 years in the slammer, and couldn't do anything really enormous. I mean, her plan relied on her not doing something.

Then again, she did appear to banish Celestia...

Given how popular both franchises are I'm surprised there isn't doctored video of The Doctor regenerating into Doctor Hooves already. Someone should look into that. We've seen that Lauren Faust is aware of the fan reaction to Derpy, do we know if she's aware how popular the Doctor is?

I'm willing to bet money that Appleblossom is going to be the last CMC to get her cutie mark, just for added drama. Speaking of, what are the CMCs going to do after they get their cutie marks? That seems to be their primary reason for existing. Also, on the topic of geting a cutie mark; notice how the CMCs constantly check their flanks after a failed attempt. That's not how cutie marks work. When you have an epiphany and KNOW what your place in the world is you're too happy to notice your new mark except as an afterthought. That's how it will be for the CMCs too. They'll be so happy about sining/winning a scooter related event/um, barnraising(?) that someone will have to point out to them that they've finally got their cutie marks.

edited 16th Apr '11 6:39:16 PM by WillKeaton

Sweetie Bell's special talent:    SIN   

Jokes aside, it's been implied that Sweetie Bell's talent is song, Scootaloo's is dance, and Apple Bloom's is craftsmanship or something. The reason their talent show entry went up in flames is because they all ended up dodging the aspect of it that would've used their talent.

Yeah, but a big part of the joke surrounding the three is that, no matter how many times it's hinted at, or heck, even outright told to them that getting your cutie mark means finding out what you want to do with your life, they ever listen. Heck, they even hung a lampshade on it this episode:

Scootaloo: "These namby-pamy stories aren't getting us anywhere! They're all about finding who you are, and junk!"

Rarity: "Yes, Scootaloo, that's exactly-"

And then the CMC ditch her. See what I mean? Time and again they're told that a cutie mark isn't what you're meant to do, but what you want to do. Their Aesop Amnesia seems to be a bit of a running joke in the series. My guess is it's so that they can keep returning, likely by Hasbro's orders, since if they ever do find their cutie marks, that would pretty much be the end of them.

edited 16th Apr '11 6:53:19 PM by kegisak

So, take Applejack for example. If she had never seen the rainbow pointing her back home what would have happened to her? Would she have found a different cutie mark or was she always destined to have three apples tatood on her flank and would have realized this eventually no matter what? Twilight's cutie mark seems to be predestined, it's the sixth element of harmony surrounded by the other five. So what if the sonic rainboom never happened and there was no magical moment when all six ponies got their cutie marks and had their lives intertwined? Would somepony else have been chosen to wield the Elements of Harmony?

Well, that's hard to say. I think Applejack would have gone back home eventually, since she seemed to really regret leaving - the rainboom just gave her a little nudge. Rarity's horn took her to the rock, completely independent of Dash, so if she had decided to say, kick it, the result would have been the same. Fluttershy obviously loved the animals on the ground so much she would have gone back...to be honest, I think Pinkie Pie is the only one who's life would have turned out differently. If she hadn't seen the rainboom, she may very well have just kept on farming rocks her whole life. Twilight, I think, would have been found by Celestia eventually - one can only keep a cap on so much raw power for so long - but considering the first shot of turned her parents into cacti, her life could have been very, very different...

Hehe...crossovers...◊

Hey guys, am I the only one who noticed the Lion King reference when Rarity ended up in front of that rock? She started narrating about her destiny and suddenly the camera panned out to reveal the symbolic jutting rock... that just happened to have another rock on top of it.

Yay, I managed to describe Pride Rock without saying phallic.

.......Horse apples! ><

Watched The Cutie Mark Chronicles today. Strange how young Fluttershy is taller than the others in the flashback. Guess it makes sense when she reminded Pinky she's one year older than her.

Actually, the giant rock before it got cracked reminded me more of the obelisk from 2001.

Some thoughts:

I think Applejack's story put in an extra dimension to her anxiety at Celestia's brunch.

Spike's origin was interesting. Was that test the same for every unicorn at the school? I guess Twilight would be his foster parent?

I'm seconding the idea that the "rock farm" is a quarry. Rock farm just sounds a lot more funny and depressing. It cracked me up that Pinkie's family's life was so bleak that they had to strain to so much as smile.

So if Rainbow Dash is behind everything, does that make her pony Vriska? Pony Ganon? Pony Bolas?

edited 16th Apr '11 9:53:18 PM by Gelzo

More like Pony Chrono. She didn't know she was causing everything.

Pony Chrono?

Dammit now I'm retfaux RPG for the series. Especially if it used the tech system for Chrono Trigger, which would gel really well with the series themes of friendship, co-operation, and embracing the talents of individuals to achieve a common goal.

I meant the rock that the giant rock and Rarity were standing on :P

More Doctor Whoof◊.

You know something I considered today? When Applejack leaves home and goes to Manehatten, there doesn't seem to be a single concern that she's going there all by herself. Even though we already pretty much know what kind of place Equestria is, I think that right there speaks volumes about the land where no one seems to have to worry about this little filly traveling from the country to the Equestrian equivalent of New York City all alone.

edited 16th Apr '11 10:45:30 PM by SpaceJawa