Headscratchers / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (IDW)

General

• Are the comics canon or Alternate Continuity? I've seen it argued in both directions. Yes, they're officially licensed, but that doesn't necessarily make them the same continuity.
  • According to artist/writer Andy Price, the comics are only canon until the show says otherwise.

MLP:Fi M # 1 - # 4 (The Return of Queen Chrysalis)

• What are "infected" ponies and how does Twilight know about them? I first assumed that they were ponies under a spell, like Cadance's bridemaids and Shining Armor in A Canterlot Wedding, but the dialogue and all the captured ponies suggest they are changelings in disguise. However, the changelings impersonating Derpy and Pinkie had neither permanent glowing eyes nor a zombie-like behavior.
  • From a Line to God: They aren't really zombies... just not really putting any effort into the charade of taking over Ponyville. They don't really need to since the whole thing is just a first step in Chrysalis' plan to lure the Six to her.
  • It seems pretty clear the changelings "infected" the ponies like Chrysalis did to Shining Armor and her bridemaids, then brought them all to the town hall and started cocooning them so they could take their place.
  • The "infected" CMC were definitely changelings, as the originals were captured early on. That implies all the infected ponies were already replaced, and, like the point above says, they were deliberately acting "off" to raise the Mane Six's suspicions as part of Chrysalis' larger plan.
• How does Fluttershy know the queen's name?
  • Just because it isn't mentioned in A Canterlot Wedding doesn't mean no one knows it. Presumably Celestia would at least know the name of the ruler of a kingdom just south of her own.
    • Going by the preview images of issue #3, the Changeling Kingdom didn’t exist until after the events of A Canterlot Wedding.
    • Or, quite darkly, this is one of many different 'Changeling Kingdoms' created in Chrysalis and her army's conquests. It's quite possible they have a homeland somewhere, but have obtained many different kingdoms/colonies over time.
  • In the Italian dub — and possibly other foreign dubs, I haven’t checked — Celestia does call her Queen Chrysalis. (Because her name was in the script, after all.)
• Why do the Mane Six fall so easily for the Changelings' ruse to break their friendship? It's not like they're unaware that they're going up against shapeshifters who thrive in sowing exactly this kind of discord amongst ponies. You'd think Twilight at least (the one who first caught Chrysalis' bullshit last time) would have suspected something was off.

MLP:Fi M # 5 - # 8 (Nightmare Rarity)

• So, why exactly is Rarity, not Twilight taken by the horrors? Rarity seems to be much stronger willed and harder to snap, after all, not to mention much less combat capable. Also, why exactly Mane 5 + Luna took Spike with themselves? Yes, out-of-story answer is probably extra-clichéy repetition of ending of Secret of My Excess, but how characters justify that in-story? They never take him to fight villains in animated series precisely because he is a load and would just be 'dragon in distress' next to any serious villain, which these undoubtedly are. Why Celestia and Luna didn't call Mane 5 on this?
  • While I don't know about Rarity (it could just be a target of opportunity), but Spike has the ability to send messages and objects between himself and Celestia. That could probably be very useful.
    • The problem with this is, pony they had greatest need to contact, expert on nightmares, Luna, was right there with them. Doesn't Luna/Twilight team have any other way to contact Celestia? I find it hard to believe.
  • It seems perfectly logical to me. When it comes down to it, what trait did the Nightmares exploit in Luna? Vanity. She wanted people to appreciate her work. Rarity is the most compatible with that same flaw, and the easiest to manipulate because of it. The others, not so much. As for Spike, they wouldn't be likely to stop him with Rarity involved. He helped with the Diamond Dogs, after all.
    • Ha, called it.
    • It looked like they exploited her generosity. Which is fine and well, but Twilight can be exploited even easier, and seems to be much more powerful combatant. Sparkle, shown the same tempting image as Rarity (friends abandoning her) would fall twice as fast and as hard as Rarity - remember what happened when she thought she would fail to write a report?
    • They didn't exploit her generosity at all. You're missing the point of her nightmare. Rarity's issue was rejection. She was afraid that what she did would not be appreciated. Same with Luna. Her beautiful night was rejected by sleepy ponies. This wouldn't work on Twilight, because Twilight's only fear of rejection comes from Celestia. It's too specific to be manipulated reliably. The last time Twilight's friends went crazy, she rolled with it until she failed to do what Celestia asked of her.
    • Rejection wouldn't work on Twilight? In The Return of Harmony, thought her friends abandoned her causes Twilight to break without Discord's input. In Lesson Zero, it causes her to dive into deep end and lose any inhibitions in using her magic. In Canterlot Wedding, it causes near total breakdown. Compared to Rarity being rejected in Green Isn't Your Color or Sweet and Elite, where it only makes Rarity angry and causes her to work harder, Twilight is exceedingly sensitive to rejection...
    • In "The Return of Harmony", it wasn't just being rejected by them that broke Twilight, it was that combined with her complete failure to stop Discord that did the job. She pressed on even after pointing out that they had outright become jerks. Only when there seemed to be no hope of fixing things did she finally quit. In "Lesson Zero", your example is pretty much the exact opposite of what Nightmare moon would need. Her friends treating her issue as an overreaction only made her more determined, not less. Finally, in "A Canterlot Wedding", her friends didn't believe her from the start, and it was only a very public humiliation that knocked some apparent sense into her. Even then, Twilight didn't break. She apologized. Twilight's issue isn't rejection, it's failure.
  • Exactly. Spike might be willing to stay behind normally, but not with Rarity. Trying to convince him otherwise would be a really dick move. And Rarity (along with Rainbow Dash) has always been the one who struggles most with her darker impulses, Twilight on the other hand is rule abiding to the point of madness. Twilight is easy to fool, but I doubt she would be so easy to corrupt.
    • But Spike was taken only because he was already in place and could dig. What happens in all other episodes? Friendship is Magic, part 2, Dragonshy, The Return of Harmony, The Crystal Empire, every episode Twilight and Rarity go do something dangerous Spike is unceremoniously left at home. Even in Sweet and Elite, episode where Mane 5 took short, safe trip to Spike's pretty much second home for Rarity's birthday he was deemed to young to travel. Why accept him now?
    • All of those episodes have Rarity going on a dangerous mission. Rarity herself is not in direct danger. Her being in danger is how Spike got himself into the one mission where it was actually an issue, and so to is this one.
  • I'm guessing they couldn't resist the Actor Allusion. Coming up next, Nightmare Granny Smith!
  • Don't get your jimmies in a bunch! Word of God says that Rarity has a Dark Secret that's the real reason why she was chosen to be the Nightmare's vessel. Looks like we'll just have to wait until the next issues come out, and hopefully all shall make sense.
• Where in the hoof is Applejack's hat? She's never seen with it throughout the entire arc.

MLP:Fi M # 11 - # 12 (Neigh Anything)

• In the Dungeons and Dragons analogue, "elves" and "dwarves" are treated as add-on adjectives, i.e. "dwarf mule" and "elf pony". This is in addition to their classes, i.e. "dwarf mule barbarian". Shouldn't "elf" and "dwarf" be species alongside mules and ponies?
  • They are. Dwarf mule is simply the species. So is elf pony. I'm sure if there were more than one sentient species in real life Dungeons and Dragons would have multiple "real world" ones combined with "fantasy" races.

MLP:Fi M # 17 - # 20 (Reflections)

• One of the mane problems this arc has is its logic. At first, it seems normal: If you're hurt, imprisoned, or killed, your counterpart suffers the same fate. However, it is never explained why Mirror!Sombra is alive while his counterpart was killed.
  • Doesn't have to. Before Celestia and Star Swirls visits the world were "kind of" parallel.(Kind of because the only parallels we have is that Celestia is Evil, Sombra is good and Luna didn't became Nightmare Moon), after their visits increase, actions in one world start to affect the other in small, but not exact opposite, ways, the biggest one is Luna's alignment. At the start of the saga, Evil!Celestia thrashes Good!Celestia very badly, but doesn't show to be hurt herself, and later the paradox becomes worse, and hurting one hurts the other, which means that that was not the case before, ergo, Sombra being evil in the main dimension didn't affect at all the good Sombra, since it didn't affected his alignment. However, if that is still the case, Discord being reformed isn't very good news for that dimension...
  • In regards to Discord. It probably doesn't work like that. Since the mirror world Celestia and Luna changed alliances from good to evil, the "normal" Celestia and Luna should have become evil. At the very least, when the dimensions are so close to being one, the only things they share are physical. Probably.

Holidays 2014 ("Equestria Girls Holiday Special")

• Why did they continue to frame Sunset as Anon-a-Miss after achieving their original goal? They say if was because others students were asking for more, but why do it? If it was to be popular with them, the whole point of Anon-a-Miss was it was making who the students thought it was (Sunset) the opposite of popular, while they got none of the "popularity". So why continue as long as they did?

MLP:Fi M # 27 - # 28 (Root of the Problem)

• Why doesn't Twilight Sparkle used her authority as a Princess to stop Well-To-Do's toxic "progress" plans?
• If the land was so polluted the dear couldn't grow anything even with their magic, how are the biogenic, but presumably non-magical, milkshakes Well-To-Do was selling in the park able to do so?

MLP:Fi M # 34 - # 37 (Siege of the Crystal Empire)

• Why is Iron Will involved in the Villain Team-Up? AT ALL? He's never been a villain in any appearances or had a SINGLE villainous moment. And the reason for it makes zero sense. Iron Will was never about trying to scare anyone, nor did it play in at all period. He was about using your anger as a tool and motivator and to not take any crap. Fear had nothing to do with it, anger was his thing. It makes no sense and comes off more as the justification a bad fanfic would use to make him a Ron the Death Eater than something that should pop up in canon.
• If the Flim Flam Brothers are the Dirty Coward duo Word of God describes them as (IE, willing to sell out their own mother if it benefits them), why in the heck didn't they just stab Radiant in the back the moment they got captured to get leverage and/or a pardon, ect. ? According to the writer, Chrysalis was the only one who was aware that there was any plan beyond the attack on the Crystal Fair, so by all accounts Flim and Flam should have believed the plan was a bust but that Radiant was still loose. So if they're that self centered and willing to sell people out for their own sake, why didn't they rat Radiant out then and there in exchange for whatever they could get?
  • Part of their motive was revenge against the Apples, which ratting Radiant out wouldn't accomplish. And is their any reason to believe a bounty system exists in Equestria, given how absurdly everything gets forgiven?
• As Hope, Twilight and the Princesses try to save Sombra from fading away. The Crystal Heart emits a bright light and the five are able to rid him of his Umbrum magic, leaving him as a normal pony. Does that mean the Crystal Heart actively stepped in to help? Making it (like the Tree of Harmony) at least semi-sentient?
• On a related topic, now that Sombra is a normal pony. Does he have a cutie mark now? Or will he have to work to acquire one like other ponies do? (even reformed he was wearing his robe, making it hard to tell)

MLP:Fi M # 48 - # 50 (Chaos Theory)

• If they retrieved the Elements of Harmony from the Tree of Harmony, why didn't they do so when Discord was teamed up with Tirek? That seems as much a Godzilla Threshold.
• So Starlight, already (somehow) powerful enough to match an Alicorn, can even shield herself from the freaking Elements of Harmony — i.e., the top dogs on the Super Weight scale?
  • The series has always worked on the basis of Strong as They Need to Be, this is just the logical conclusion.
  • The elements weren't directly aimed at her, and this issue considers the elements as the embodiment of order. As Starlight actually explains, she's not the most chaotic of ponies herself. They didn't work on her for the same reason they didn't work on Accord.
  • The Elements are like the Star Beam from Paper Mario 64, they negate dark/corruptive magic from otherwise invincibly powerful foes and the stories revolve around finding/using them, but they have no power/utility outside that narrow, but impressive, function as far as we've seen. The Star Beam was temporarily negated by a comparatively mundane power boost, and Starlight was the only character who tried countering it with a mundane shield spell. In short, we fans incorrectly, but understandably, assumed they were omnipotent forces of good when in reality they were merely powerful yet fallible tools.
• Season 7, which the very next comics tie into, revealed the Elements were grown by one who also had and overly orderly mindset. And it took until Season 8 for the source of the Element to gain sapience which would let it let it tell right from wrong.

MLP:Fi M # 58

• According to this comic, Mage Meadowbrook never had foals, implying Cattail, repeatedly stated to be her dependent, is related through Mage Meadowbrook's sister, making her his distant aunt. I've never seen ancestry (which implies straight line of decent) work this way. Anything?

Holidays Special 2017

• Why are the Flim-Flam Brothers selling holiday merchandise in Ponyville? The last time they appeared in the show (which the comics are supposedly trying to form a stronger continuity with), they'd gained control over an entire resort in Las Pegasus. Surely that would earn them more money than their scheme here?
  • One of the brothers said that the resort was closed due it being the off season in "The Greatest Gift" special.

MLP:Fi M # 66

• So Twilight Sparkle is too busy with the School of Friendship to visit Applewood, so how is everypony else, over half of the schools staff, able to find time to do so, much less get involved in a film production that Applejack says would take months?
  • Related, Applejack claim she had no plans "for the next few months". What about the school, or her farm? I'd assume she's being sarcastic but she said it straight faced (problem with the art?) and did seriously get involved with the project.

MLP:Fi M # 75 - # 78 (Cosmos)

• If Queen Novo was around over 1000 years ago, how can she have a sibling, who doesn't show the special powers that would make them Long-Lived, be around at present?
  • Novo's never mentioned by name. Maybe it's an ancestor with Strong Family Resemblance?
• So if Discord was actually a Noble Demon who was unwilling to cause serious harm, what could he have done that was bad enough to warrant petrifying him? Even if it was due to blaming him for Cosmos' actions, why wait as long as the comic implies as opposed to immediately afterward? (I don't buy the "Discord was lying" theory as the current mess was caused by his hiding the truth and Aesop Amnesia in the middle of the Aesop is as contrived, plus why lie if he had already been forgiven for such? And why wouldn't the comic show if this was the case?)
  • The last two panels suggest he allowed himself to be petrified out of guilt (which he had planned on being temporary), so maybe hid did something to provoke this.

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