History Recap / MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E1TheCrystalEmpirePart1

* SpoiledByTheMerchandise: The Target-exclusive toy sets spoiled some things about this arc before any clips from the episodes were released.

** The Crystal Ponies were kept as Sombra's SlaveRace, and have spent the last thousand years after his defeat with no contact with the outside world and stuck in a state of despair and unhappiness. Worsening it is the fact that they have ''no'' memory of the time before that, meaning all they could remember during that time was being his slaves. It's mitigated a little by the fact that the Crystal Ponies are under the impression that they were part of Equestria "yesterday", implying that they didn't live out the thousand years they had disappeared for, but simply skipped forward in time.

* BrickJoke:
** When the mane six ask if there are any books on the history of the Crystal Empire, the librarian responds that she doesn't know, because she can't remember. She doesn't even know if she actually works in the library at all. A few scenes later, when she regains her coloration, she happily shouts "I DO work at the library!"
** Pinkie's friends quickly learn she does not play the flugelhorn well. Later, Rainbow Dash outright ignores Pinkie's desire for a flugelhorn when handing them out at the crystal fair.

* CreepyMonotone: The Crystal Ponies have almost no affect in their voices, making them all sound depressed.

* TheDarkTimes: King Sombra ruled the Crystal Empire with an iron hoof, relegating its populace into slavery. Even after being freed, the once cheerful Crystal Ponies are still miserable and shudder in fear at the memory of Sombra's rule.
* DataCrystal: Celestia keeps a crystal that stores a hologram of her and Luna deposing King Sombra.

* TheDreaded: If the reaction of the Crystal Pony that Twilight speaks to is any indication, King Sombra is this for the Crystal Ponies. The way that Celestia talks about him implies this is far from unwarranted. Shining Armor also displays fear when speaking of him.

* EternalEnglish: Despite having been gone for a thousand years, the crystal ponies speak modern English, which can't be said for Princess Luna.
* EvilPlan: King Sombra wants his domain back.

** Cadance's cutie mark, first seen several months before this episode aired, incorporates the Crystal Heart, implying that she was always destined to rule the Empire.
* [[ForgotAboutHisPowers Forgot About Her Powers]]: Twilight seemingly forgets that she can teleport while running from King Sombra. Given the large group with her, it's possible she couldn't teleport them all; indeed herself and three people was such a struggle back in [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E21DragonQuest "Dragon Quest"]] that she failed on her first attempt. It could also be she wasn't familiar with the area; teleporting into a wall or one of those crystal spikes wouldn't end well.

* GrimUpNorth: The Crystal Empire is located in the northern reaches of Equestria ([[AllThereInTheManual the Comic-Con map poster calls it the Frozen North]]), which is surrounded by blinding snow. It's said that you do ''not'' want to be caught outside after dark, lest something nasty catch you.
* HappilyMarried: Cadance's lyrics from ''Canterlot Wedding part 2'' include "love and cherish him each day". We see her and Shinning Armor engaged in precisely that; their marriage is literally the only thing that's keeping the Crystal Empire from collapsing.

* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Apparently, King Sombra placed a spell on all the Crystal ponies so they can't remember anything about life before he came to power.

* MoodWhiplash: As usual, the cliffhanger of this episode is immediately followed by the happy credits music.
* NewRulesAsThePlotDemands: This episode introduces dualistic elements to unicorn magic. Although previously a unicorn's magic was always the same color (the light within them, possibly), Celestia reveals that if a unicorn uses magic to spread hate and fear, their eyes glow green and [[ExcessiveEvilEyeshadow their mascara comes alive and runs like mad]].

* RedEyesTakeWarning: King Sombra. A literal case as simply remembering his gaze causes one of the Crystal Ponies to shudder in fear.

* TakeOverTheWorld: While not stated aloud, during the demonstration that Princess Celestia gives Twilight, she explains that the hope, love, and positive feelings of the Crystal Ponies allow prosperity to flow out from the land to the world entire. If that turns to fear and despair, the demonstration shows the dark crystals spreading beyond the Crystal Empire, indicating that by making the Crystal Ponies his miserable slaves, Sombra would be able to spread power throughout the land. [[FridgeHorror So if Sombra held an evil version of the Crystal Fair using the Crystal Heart, it would cause misery and despair to fill the entire world.]]

* VanishingVillage: The Crystal Empire has been missing for a thousand years.
* VestigialEmpire: Whatever the Crystal Empire was like in the past, in the present it is a single small city in the middle of a frozen wasteland.

* AntiMagic: While trying to defend Twilight and her friends, Shining Armor is cursed by King Sombra, rendering his magic unusable.

* PowerNullifier: The black crystals manifesting on Shining Armor's horn.

** This also isn't the first time a method of breaking a BigBad's spell involved [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E2TheReturnOfHarmonyPart2 reminding the victim of happier times]].

* UnreliableIllustrator: What is supposedly a crystal flugelhorn looks more like an instrument out of a Seussian fantasy land than any actual flugelhorn. (Real flugelhorns don't have two bells, for one thing.)

* CallBack:
** In "A Canterlot Wedding", Shining Armor had to keep up a massive shield over Canterlot with Cadance supporting him. Here, it's reversed. Princess Cadance is the one who has to power the shield to protect the Crystal Empire with Shining Armor supporting her.
** A [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E1MareInTheMoon banished ruler somehow escapes]] and returns to wreak havoc and resume their rule.
** [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E1TheReturnofHarmonyPart1 "Return of Harmony"]] sets the precedent: ponies who have lost some vital aspect of their personalities have faded, drab coats.

* TheWorldIsJustAwesome: Both Twilight and Rarity when they express a loss of words, almost directly quoting ''Film/{{Contact}}''. Twilight's loss of words is [[RuleOfFunny at a library]].

* LateArrivalSpoiler: Inverted. The Target-exclusive toy sets spoiled some things about this arc ''before'' any clips from the episodes were released!

* NightVisionGoggles: Worn by Pinkie [[{{Cloudcuckoolander during the day]].

* AnitMagic: While trying to defend Twilight and her friends, Shining Armor is cursed by King Sombra, rendering his magic unusable.

!!Continued in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E2TheCrystalEmpirePart2 The Crystal Empire - Part 2]]".

!Tropes present in this episode and/or the following episode include: [[YMMV/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E1TheCrystalEmpirePart1 YMMV tropes here]].

* ActorAllusion: As everyone says how they didn't find out anything, Fluttershy walks up to the group, only for it to turn out to be Pinkie in a Fluttershy suit.[[note]]Andrea Libman voices both characters.[[/note]]

** King Sombra was 'turned to shadow' and banished to the ice of the arctic north. Whether that entails this is unclear as of yet.

* AntiMagic[=/=]PowerNullifier: While trying to defend Twilight and her friends, Shining Armor is cursed by King Sombra, rendering his magic unusable. Sombra's ability to do this is the former and the black crystals manifesting on Shining's horn are the latter.
* AnvilOnHead[=/=]ThrowTheBookAtThem: Spike gets Twilight's copy of [[DoorStopper "The Magical Compendium, Volumes 1-36"]] dropped on his head.

-->''[[SweetTooth Ooh! Funnel cake!!]]''
* BarrierMaiden:

* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Averted once again for Cadance. After days without sleep she has bags under her eyes and droops with fatigue.
** Just as before, this also serves as straight UnkemptBeauty.

--> '''Twilight Sparkle''': We're looking for a book.
--> '''Librarian Crystal Pony''': We have plenty of those.
--> '''Twilight Sparkle''': ''*starts swooning*'' You do. You '''really''' do!

** When Twilight announces the start of the Crystal Fair, she uses her brother's new title, 'Prince'.

--> '''Cadance''': [[LampshadeHanging One of these days, we're going to have to do this when the fate of Equestria isn't hanging in the balance]]

* [[ForgotAboutHisPowers Forgot About Her Powers]]: Twilight seemingly forgets that she can teleport while running from King Sombra. Given the large group with her, it's possible she couldn't teleport them all; indeed herself and three people was such a struggle back in [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E21DragonQuest Dragon Quest]] that she failed on her first attempt. It could also be she wasn't familiar with the area; teleporting into a wall or one of those crystal spikes wouldn't end well.

-->'''Twilight''': ''I'm going to need more flashcards.''
* GoodRepublicEvilEmpire: Averted overall--the ponies of the Crystal Empire are definitely on the side of good. However, briefly DoubleSubverted when [[EvilOverlord King Sombra]] was in power.

* HappilyMarried: Cadance's lyrics from ''Canterlot Wedding part 2'' include 'love and cherish him each day''. We see her and Shinning Armor engaged in precisely that; their marriage is literally the only thing that's keeping the Crystal Empire from collapsing.
* [[HighlyVisibleNinja Highly Visible Spy]]: Pinkie in her spysuit, bouncing around city streets in broad daylight.

* InherentlyFunnyWords[=/=]MundaneMadeAwesome: Pinkie is greatly entertained at the prospect of playing the flügelhorn.

** LateArrivalSpoiler: Inverted. The Target-exclusive sets spoiled some things about this arc ''before'' any clips from the episodes were released!

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: While Shining Armor succeeded in keeping the mane six safe, trying to take on King Sombra ended with his magic sealed and thus unable to help Cadance protect the empire.
* NightVisionGoggles: Worn by Pinkie [[CloudCuckooLander during the day]].
* NonStandardCharacterDesign: The Empire's residents have gem-shaped white spots in their eyes, while the other ponies have standard round ones.

** Celestia when her scout informs her that Sombra has returned. She instantly goes into 'avert-the-crisis' mode.

* [[ThePowerOfHate The Power of Fear]]: King Sombra specialized in using fear based magic to rule his empire. Princess Celestia deomonstrates this power herself.

** [[HilariousInHindsight My Little Steampunk]].
* SecretTestOfCharacter: Celestia tells Twilight that this mission will be a 'different sort of test'.

** [[VideoGame.TeamFortress2 It's a Spy!]]
** Shining Armour's winter attire seems to be one to ''StarWars: TheEmpireStrikesBack''.
** The episode introduces the concept that unicorns can use their magic to spread hatred, fear, and selfishness, at the price of corruption of the soul. Is that magic or the [[StarWars Force]]?
** When Cadance and Twilight do the sunshine dance, the music briefly resembles a KingdomHearts town tune.
* SiblingTeam: Just like with Discord, the royal sisters team up to defeat King Sombra. The recording crystal shows them crossing horns for a CombinationAttack magic beam.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: When the musical score kicks in during "The Failure Song", it sounds similar to the main theme of ''YoungSherlockHolmes''.
* SpyCatSuit: Pinkie Pie wears one in her ShoutOut moment above.

* TheWorldIsJustAwesome: Both Twilight and Rarity when they express a loss of words, almost directly quoting ''Film/{{Contact}}''. Twilight's loss of words is [[RuleOfFunny at a library]].

--> '''Rainbow Dash:''' "Can't have a Crystal Fair without the Crystal Heart, right?"
--> '''Librarian:''' "Of course you can't! But I thought King Sombra hid the Crystal Heart away somewhere nopony would ever find it."

** This isn't the first time Fluttershy has [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E2TheReturnOfHarmonyPart2 drawn back menacingly behind other ponies only to be very gentle]].
** This also isn't the first time a method of breaking a BigBad's spell involved [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E2TheReturnOfHarmonyPart2 reminding the victim of happier times]].
** Pinkie never leaves home without her party cannon.
** Also, she kept her [[SpyCatsuit Spy]] [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E20ItsAboutTime outfit.]]
** Applejack dryly remarks to Rarity that Twilight is taking the possibility of failing her test rather well... [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E3LessonZero considering what happened last time.]]
** Twilight and Cadance share their childhood rhyme again when they meet.
--> '''Cadance''': [[LampshadeHanging One of these days, we're going to have to do this when the fate of Equestria isn't hanging in the balance]][[note]]This eventually happens in [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E12GamesPoniesPlay "Games Ponies Play"]][[/note]]

** Rarity shows her [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E11WinterWrapUp proficiency for weaving without magic]] again.
** We also get to see again Twilight's awful crafting skills.
** Once again, we see [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E1MareInTheMoon Twilight searching a library, examining and tossing aside books with a series of "No"s until she finds the one she needs... which she then flattens Spike with when she removes it from the shelf.]]

'''''TO BE CONTINUED'''''

* UnreliableIllustrator: What is supposedly crystal flugelhorn looks more like an instrument out of a Seussian fantasy land than any actual flugelhorn. (Real flugelhorns don't have two bells, for one thing.)

* GenericDoomsdayVillain: Although King Sombra is one of the more [[DangerouslyGenreSavvy competent villains in the show]], he doesn't have much in the way of characterization or history like the other villains in the series and spends most of the two-parter as more of a wave of blackness rather than an actual character. Since he apparently dies, so it looks like he'll never get fleshed out.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Crystal_Empire_9211.jpg]]

''I think we can do it, but [[ThePowerOfFriendship we have to work together]].''\\
''We have to get this right, yes we need to make them see.''\\

''We have to get this right, yes we have to make them see.''\\

''I think we can do it, but [[ThePowerOfFriendship we need to work together]].''\\

* BigBad: King Sombra is the latest threat to Esquetria and he's starting with a campaign to retake the Crystal Empire.

** The point of the Crystal Heart was to avert this trope; [[spoiler: every crystal pony in the empire contributes to charging it up so no one person has sole responsibility for the empire's protection.]]

** A new stained glass window depicts [[spoiler:[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E26ACanterlotWeddingPart2 Shining Armor and Princess Cadance using]] ThePowerOfLove [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E26ACanterlotWeddingPart2 to save Canterlot]].]]

** Cadance's cutie mark, first seen several months before this episode aired, incorporates the Crystal Heart, implying that [[spoiler:she was always destined to rule the Empire.]]

* GenericDoomsdayVillain: Although King Sombra is one of the more [[DangerouslyGenreSavvy competent villains in the show]], he doesn't have much in the way of characterization or history like the other villains in the series and spends most of the two-parter as more of a wave of blackness rather than an actual character. [[spoiler:Since he apparently dies, so it looks like he'll never get fleshed out.]]

* LatexPerfection: Pinkie's [[spoiler:Fluttershy]] costume.

* OrcusOnHisThrone: After sealing Shining Armor's magic, King Sombra spends the rest of the episode waiting for Cadance to tire without doing anything to hurry the process along. Justified as contact with the shield seem to be physically painful for him. [[spoiler:It is shown to be able to cut through his horn at the very start of Part 2.]]

--> '''Rainbow Dash:''' "[[spoiler:Can't have a Crystal Fair without the Crystal Heart, right?]]"
--> '''Librarian:''' [[spoiler:"Of course you can't! But I thought King Sombra hid the Crystal Heart away somewhere nopony would ever find it.]]"
* WellIntentionedReplacement: Twilight was confident that her magically carved crystal heart was enough to serve as the centrepiece of the Crystal Fair. [[spoiler: It wasn't.]]

* AntiMagic / PowerNullifier: While trying to defend Twilight and her friends, Shining Armor is cursed by King Sombra, rendering his magic unusable. Sombra's ability to do this is the former and the black crystals manifesting on Shining's horn are the latter.

--> '''Cadance''': [[LampshadeHanging One of these days, we're going to have to do this when the fate of Equestria isn't hanging in the balance]]. [[hottip:*:This eventually happens in [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E12GamesPoniesPlay "Games Ponies Play"]].]]