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

Setting guesses, Main Character guesses, Secondary Character guesses, Villain guesses, Minor Character guesses, Future Stories guesses, Jossed guesses, Confirmed guesses My Little Pony: The Movie (2017), My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (IDW), My Little Pony: Equestria Girls

Guesses about the IDW My Little Pony comic book series.

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General

There will be a story arc where the Mane Six encounter Bizarro World versions of themselves

These mares will invariably hold the "Elements of Discord," and become recurring villains, much like a certain Green nemesis to a famous Blue Speedster.

The jury is out on whether or not they will be full-on reversals of the Mane Six's personalities or simply more Evil Versions of their counterparts.

• Confirmed, at least for the Bizarro World part.

• Alternatively, they do My Little Pony: Shattered Glass, where the jerks and bullies from the show become the Elements of Harmony, the Mane Six are jerks, villains are good guys, etc.

• They'll see The Lunaverse .

It will be set in an Alternate Continuity, be slightly Darker and Edgier and feature a Love Dodecahedron.

Much like another series about colorful critters.

• No Love Dodecahedron but the Darker and Edgier seems okay. Comics can do things cartoons cannot, as they're less mainstream and viewed by less.
  • As of Issue 3, it is noticeably Darker and Edgier. Queen Chrysalis dealt with the kingdom she landed in, which is entirely populated with cute rabbit-cat-creatures that are constantly expressing their love for everything, by feeding on their love and essentially killing nearly all of them, except for a bunch of them used for food reserves. There's even a bit of blood splatter on one panel, in which Chrysalis feasts on one of the creatures in front of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
  • Alternate Continuity is becoming increasingly likely, as the season 4 writers have not read the comics and likely will joss them.
  • Given how much it references events in the program itself, an Alternate Continuity would raise far more problems instead of fixing them.

At some point, it'll be featured in the Infestation Event

It will have lots and lots of Continuity Porn

There will be a Transformers crossover

IDW loves doing crossovers, and they've become Hasbro go-to comic publisher for their franchises (they also do comics for G.I. Joe and Dungeons & Dragons).^note On a side note, IDW also has the Doctor Who license, so an official Doctor Whoof story is more likely than it seems now. Optimus Prime was suppose to get a cameo in the G1 movie, so it might be well overdue for an official crossover.

• Good news! Optimus Prime makes an appearance in issue #2: http://eqmegathreads.blogspot.com/2012/12/fim-comic-issue-2-preorder-on-itunes.html

There will be a Star Trek crossover.

IDW does Star Trek comics and a crossover (even a one-shot crossover) would be amazing. Especially if Discord/Q is involved.

There will be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (IDW) appearance.

The Ninja Turtles have met Usagi Yojimbo in most incarnations, another group of funny animals won't raise any eyebrows.

It will crossover with all of the IDW properties. Simultaneously.

So, there will finally be the Doctor Who and Star Trek crossover with bonus Transformers, Turtles, Ponies, G.I. Joe, Ghostbusters, and more. Even Godzilla.

I think that covers all the crossovers...

There will be no crossovers!

There,now we've covered all our bases.

Since IDW has the Doctor Who license, it will make Doctor Whooves canon

And Doctor Whooves will have adventures simultaneously in the background as the Mane 6 have in the foreground. By reading the arc you can see the Doctor's adventures. And after a few arcs, when all hope seems lost, he will come in to help save the day.

• Bonus points if Derpy is the companion.
  • Or Pinkie. Or Twilight. Or Rose. Or Minuette.
• If nothing else, one of the variant covers featuring Time Turner is choke full of Doctor Who shout outs including having him wearing the Fourth Doctor's scarf.
  • Another cover has Time Turner, Derpy, the sonic screwdriver and the TARDIS.
  • Issue #7 had the usual David Tennant lookalike Doctor and a Matt Smith lookalike standing together next to Celestia, as she is preparing the citizens of Ponyville to face the oncoming storm. The "usual" 10th Doctor is looking at the oncoming disaster with a serious expression while the 11th Doctor is even sporting Matt Smith's hair, bowtie and fez.

At least one of the comics will be adapted to the television series.

Much like The Batman Adventures was with Batman: The Animated Series.

• It'll most like to be any issues/arc after Alicorn!Twilight Sparkle appears in the comics to avoid any snarls

There will be multiple Mythology Gag's to the comics

Mostly the British G1 comics and the books but probably others do.

• #7 included a sequence where Spike is shown an illusion of him becoming king. The British comics had a story where their Spike was also shown a vision of him becoming king of dragons.

We will see more Lawyer Friendly Cameos soon

Possible candidates include Surprise, Toola-Roola, Starsong, Minty, various G4 toys and maybe others as well.

A future arc will feature Discord in some capacity.

The first two arcs each revisit a villain from a two-part episode of the show, and Discord was also introduced in a two-parter. He's certainly popular enough to warrant inclusion, and could reasonably enable any number of plotlines. Plus, the comic schedule wouldn't have to work around John de Lancie's availability. Bonus points if there's a scratch-and-sniff variant cover that smells like chocolate milk.

A future arc will feature King Sombra or his horn

Giving us the opportunity to actually get to know his character and backstory as an fix for the complaints about him being too much of a Generic Doomsday Villain.

• If they want to make him an actual character: King Sombra's horn will absorb enough negative energy in order to regain his pony form, but is heavily weakened. Too achieve his full power, he will try to inflict misery on all of Equestria so that he can take it over, then eventually the entire world.
• If they want to keep the dark non-character force: King Sombra's horn will cause a spread of dark energy that acts as a virus, contaminating ponies and turning them into Ax-Crazy, hateful beasts. However, the infected still have some semblance of King Sombra's mind, so the infected try to eventually infect Twilight, since Sombra knows that she has enough power for him to regain a composed mind.
  • Said infection will began in the Crystal Empire and will be treated as a Zombie Apocalypse.

Looks like Sombra will play a major role in the sixth Arc.

King Sombra will be involved in a flashback episode, a time travel one, or via something similar to a Holodeck Malfunction

King Sombra is pretty much dead. However, he has potential. Perhaps either showcasing Sombra's rise to power until the Princesses cast him down, or accidentally sending themselves back through time to face him directly, or Luna lets them relive the events by dreamscape, but something screwing up causes them to relive the memories directly.

• Alternate: They get trapped in a historical document via that spell that gets people stuck in literature.

Pony!Flash Sentry will appear

And he will develop his intimate relationship with Twilight during her occasional stays in the Crystal Palace. It eventually culminates in a wedding, albeit one which takes place after the entire main show.

• He does make a cameo in the Luna Micro!

The Power Ponies will get their own Micro.

Perhaps their Origins Episode.

• Confirmed; the original Power Ponies are starring in the 2014 annual.

There will be a Friends Forever issue featuring Spike and Cadence together with art by Agnes Garbowska

There was a Friends Forever issue featuring Spike & Celestia together and anther issue with Spike & Luna together. Both of which had art by Agnes Garbowska. I sniff a trilogy...

Season 10, episode 10 (releasing May 2021)

According to solicitations, it involves Celestia and Luna's history with a kraken, who's pictured in a stained glass window on the cover of the issue. My guess, based on the image: this isn't just any kraken, it's G4's version of G1 villain Squirk.

Season 10 will Retcon the Season 9 premiere.

Given how controversial it was for (A) Discontinuing King Sombra's arc here and (B) turning him into a Same Character, But Different, Jeremy Whitley and/or someone else will fix this by revealing that that "Sombra" was Actually a Doombot made/summoned by "Grogar"/Discord for his S9 scheme. Thus leaving room for Comic Sombra and Radiant Hope to return, and complete their subplot to revive Princess Amore.

Return of Queen Chrysalis (#1-4)

There will be an exploration into the Changeling's kingdom, society and culture

As it is official that the Mane Six are going into 'Chrysalis Kingdom', this could allow for some serious world building. The Changeling's kingdom, society and culture could draw from real life culture, such as Tsarist Russia or Imperial Japan or other oriental cultures, such as how much of Equestrian culture is drawn from North American and Western European culture.

It will elaborate on the Backstory of the Princesses

Because the showrunners are unwilling to do so, despite the potential for something epic. A comic book will allow more freedom with storytelling, especially since Executive Meddling dictates minimal-to-no Story Arcs in the show.

• According to an August 2012 interview of the artist, Princess Luna is best pony.
• Possible Jossed due to hints that the TV show might be coving this ground.

The 'friends' the Main 6 have to save from the Changelings...

Are the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Preview pages show Sweetie Bell and Applebloom running off with Mind-Control Eyes, with AJ and Rarity looking worried. But of course, that's just what Chrysalis wants: she's going after Storge love this time. So they face a Sadistic Choice: leave their siblings at the mercy of the Changelings, or go into Big Sister Instinct mode and make them even stronger.

• We haven't seen Scootaloo yet, but I'm guessing she's involved too, seeing as her and Dash are like sisters anyway.
• Confirmed

Pinkie Pie will theorize that their friends are zombies.

One of the non-colored pages◊ recently exhibited shows the Mane Six holed up somplace, and Twilight looking very unsure as to what's going to happen. Pinkie then raises her hoof and pretends to be a zombie, demonstrating what she thinks happened to the ponies outside. Most telling is the motion in the panel on the lower left; she grins maniacally and drags her hoof across her throat in a motion that suggests what we all know is the best way to dealing with a zombie...

• And then she will plant plants in order to help her defend Sugar Cube Corner from her undead friends' zombie invasion.
• Jossed. Pinkie was actually instructing her friends on how to behave like a zombie so they could blend and escape unnoticed. Her grin and throat-slitting pose was just Pinkie overdoing her explanation and immediately asking her friends to not do that last part.

Spike will encounter the Changelings

Hilarity Ensues.

"Don'tthinkaboutRarityDon'tthinkaboutRarityDon'tthinkaboutRarityDon'tthinkaboutRarity..."

• That, or she'll be the only thing he can think about. Hey, it's what I'd do.

Rainbow Dash has been replaced by a Changeling

She wasn't listening to Twilight, hardly remembers the details of the wedding. Changeling Dash is a deep cover agent who's been tasked by Queen Chrysalis to personally guide the rest of the Mane Six to the Changeling Kingdom.

True to Pinkie's prediction at the end of Issue 1, the Mane Six will encounter monkey ninjas on the way to the Changeling Kingdom.

Because that would be hilarious.

• Monkeys are mentioned on the map in issue two.
  • Jossed.The Mane Six encounter several dangerous creatures but Ninja monkeys aren’t among them.

The Luvcats (AKA The Adorable Citizens of Wuvy-Dovey Smoochy Land) will never be rescued.

From the preview of issue #3, it appears that the comic created an entire sentient race just so the Changelings could feed on them. I predict that the Mane 6 will not even learn of their existence, for cruelty value.

• Confirmed.

The Adorable Citizens of Wuvy-Dovey Smoochy Land will enter into a symbiotic relationship with some of the changelings.

After the manes deal with Chrysalis, some of the remaining changelings will agree to protect the citizens in return for being fed love on a regular basis. The Wuvy-Dovey Landers seem to have love to spare, and were still affectionate even after the changelings started draining them, and they could use the protection, from other changelings if no one else.

• Jossed. They are never mentioned again after #3, save for their abandoned town.

The Adorable Citizens of Wuvy-Dovey Smoochy Land are going to spring a Superweapon Surprise.

Namely, of the Bigger Brothers variety. Their allies are going to wonder why they lost contact with them and send scouts to find out. When it's revealed that the changelings are the ones responsible, there's going to be a massive invasion. And it's going to happen right after Chrysalis is defeated.Chrysalis: Ugh, how can this day get any worse? *Cue invasion*

• Sadly, jossed. See above, they were never rescued or even heard of again.

The mane six will defeat Chrysalis by overloading her

Her endgame is to steal Twilight's magic and let her drones feed off the mane six's friendship with each other and the Changelings feed on love. The Mane Six's bond with one another will be too much for them to handle.

• Jossed. Twilight, with the help of the Secretariat Comet, overpowers her through sheer power.

Queen Chrysalis will actually die.

The comic is Darker and Edgier, and Chyrsalis has been set up as much darker and more vile than the show. It'd make sense we'd see a villain die.

• Jossed! Chrysalis & the changelings current status at the end have them trapped in the castle.

The giant cockatrices somehow lost their petrifying gaze when the Secretariat Comet passed.

Power at a Price, maybe?

The Changelings captured in Ponyville are still in Equestria.

In prison, or a dungeon. We don't know what happened to them after the Mane Six left, but since reutrning them to the Changeling Kingdom is a very dangerous (and very stupid) idea, this seems their most likely fate. A future issue may have give them Brick Joke / Continuity Nod, most likely involving their attempted escape.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders suffer from Trauma-Induced Amnesia.

This is why they seemed perfectly fine after Chrysalis killed a Luvcat in front of them.

Nightmares Arc (#5-8)

The new Nightmare Moon is...

The Synopsis for Issue #6 says "Someone new, someone close to our heroes" has taken on the mantle of Nightmare Moon for the second Story Arc. Let the speculation begin!

• Rarity, she's missing from the base cover (though she's present on a variant). Also, her spotlight comic is coincidentally coming out in the same month.
  • She's also missing from Cover A of Issue #7. Both covers are done by Amy Mebberson, who's doing the interior art for the second Story Arc. This is either a hint or a Red Herring.
  • There's also the fact that Issue 7's synopsis says that the only hope left to save Equestria would be Spike himself. Anyone who knows anything about the show knows that Spike view Rarity as a love interest, so it definitely is possible that the Power of Love would be required to save her and Equestria from Nightmare Moon.
  • That not enough? A variant of Issue #5 declares that Rarity is missing.
  • Issue 5 ends with Rarity being kidnapped by the "Nightmare Forces", the same beings that corrupted Princess Luna, and Rarity's nightmare of losing her friends' love is featured more prominently. Looks like a setup for a heck of a Wham Episode in the next issue.
• Twilight Sparkle herself. She's present on all the covers because Covers Always Lie.
• An entirely new character. The Mane Six will treat them like they've always been friends with them.
• Zecora. Which means that there's a small chance that we get a rhyming Nightmare Moon.
• Princess Celestia. Solar Flare, anyone?
• The Great & Powerful Trixie; True, this would seem odd now after her Heel–Face Turn in the show but she did fall to corruption before, and the list of potential ponies that could become Nightmare Moon that are "close" to the Mane Six isn't very long.
  • Possibly Jossed if Issue 8's Cover A means anything, though it could just be a bit of Wolverine Publicity.
• The Cutie Mark Crusaders. hey are close to the Mane 6 and I'm pretty sure that they would try anything to get their Cutie marks, even make a Deal with the Devil.
• Applejack's hat. Its missing from each Cover A done by Amy Mebberson for the first three issues!
• And the winner is... Rarity! Well, we saw it coming.

Somepony stole some of Princess Luna's magic.

Thus becoming the new Nightmare Moon. This would also explain why Princess Luna has her season 1 design on one of the covers, and in the actual comic.

• The Issue 7 synopsis does suggest that Princess Luna would play an important part in the story, so it certainly is possible.
• From the bits I've seen of the comic the nightmare forces harness strength through the cycle of a new moon. There have been a few WMGs about the cycles of the moon affecting Luna's power. Another thing is that the growing strength of the nightmare forces have affected her own power.

There are, in fact, bananas on the moon.

Some of the covers suggest a complex wildlife existing up there.

The new Nightmare Moon was the result of someone having Green-Eyed Monster tendencies towards the Mane Six

• Word of God has said the dark magic that corrupted Nightmare Moon was basically The Power of Hate working similarly to how The Power of Friendship and The Power of Love work in Equestria. They take the mantle of Nightmare Moon out partly realizing this.

The Nightmare Forces Demonic Possession only works on Large Hams

• They went after Luna the first time, and now Rarity. There's no way that's a coincidence. Failing this attempt, Trixie will be next.

Nightmare Rarity will give Spike a brutal Breaking Lecture when he tries to save her.

• And it will be incredibly Tear Jerking and drive him into a Heroic BSoD. Eventually, after battling with inner demons and with the support of the other Mane 6, he'll get back into action at the last minute and be even more resolved to save her.
• Sadly, confirmed in #7. Nightmare Rarity even makes fun of Spike's attempts to say "I love you" to her..

Luna's Lie...

Princess Luna apparently lied to the Mane 6 about something. But what?

• Nightmare Moon never promised the Nightmare Forces a kingdom...it was Luna herself (prior to becoming Nightmare Moon) who promised them a kingdom.
• The Nightmare Forces didn't corrupt her, she was the one who corrupted them, this fits in with the fact that Life on the moon was once more normal.
• Luna wasn't possessed by the Nightmare Forces, but created them in the first place.

The Nightmare Forces choice of host will be their undoing.

• Namely, the fact they possessed one of the Elements of Harmony. In the end, Rarity will manage to break free enough to use the Element of Generosity alongside the others and because the Nightmare Forces are possessing her there will be no escape and they will be hit point blank by the Elements.
  • It worked the last time when they possessed Luna. She was an Element bearer and possessed Luna, and they escaped.
    • True, but Luna wasn't actually wielding it at the time, the WMG is that Rarity managing to fight through enough to use her Element while being possessed will backfire on the Nightmare Forces.

Someone else will need to fill in for Rarity as the Element of Generosity

Rarity is the new Big Bad, but its likely the Elements will be needed to purify her like last time. So someone will need to act as the Element of Generosity.

• Spike. The Fire Ruby he gave Rarity was a major showing of Generosity and he's generally selfless when it comes to helping Twilight. He may be a poor Rainbow Dash fill in, but maybe he can be one for Rarity.
• Luna. She don't know what Elements she wielded a thousand years ago, perhaps Generosity is one of them?
  • Perhaps she'll offer herself to the Nightmares in exchange for Rarity's freedom. A Heroic Sacrifice, or even just being willing to make one, is a pretty big display of Generosity.
    • Somehow, I doubt that would happen, especially considering that two earlier issues had her denying the nightmares before.

Sweetie Belle will save the day

• She does express an interest in rescuing her big sister, and a confrontation with Nightmare Rarity would hit pretty hard in the feels.
  • Jossed. Spike and the Mane Six restore her to normal. However, Sweetie Belle is one of the only individuals who can reach the real Rarity without ample application of magic to pull back the Nightmare Forces.

Three Lunas and a moon.

The comic will explain Luna's different appearances as such: She was Nightmare Moon while under the power of the Nightmare Forces and their lead spirit. She is "Woona" when under the sole influence of good dreams. Her third "midway" form is akin to a Split-Personality Merge with the Nightmare. Something Luna has been lying about upset the balance once again, but the arc will end with a message about accepting bad dreams.

Twilight and the rest of the Mane 6 will escape imprisonment with the help of Fluttershy's new friend.

After the rest of the Mane 6 are captured and imprisoned by the Nightmare Forces, Fluttershy befriends some sort of Nightmare creature. Knowing Fluttershy's talent with animals, and that the comic wouldn't just introduce this setup for no reason, Fluttershy's Nightmare friend will play a key role in helping the rest of the Mane 6 escape, allowing them the chance to confront Nightmare Rarity and help rescue her

Whatever secret Luna or Rarity will have will save Rarity.

If Rarity has the Dark Secret, it will turn out not to be so dark after all. And her friends acceptance of that secret will restore. If Luna was the one with the Dark Secret, well I don't know.

The Denizens of the moon weren't possessed, they were corrupted and Nightmare Moon was Luna's fault.

The Moon's citizens felt snubbed by their lack of a true kingdom, and likely other events, and their jealousy caused them to become corrupted. When Luna had her issues, she went to them so they could draw out her inner hate and jealousy like they had to themselves, in exchange for making them a nation, in order to become more powerful than Celestia. After Nightmare Moon was defeated by the Elements, due to being the corruption of an alicorn, it survived even without Luna. The corrupted moon citizens had to find another host and one whose deepest issues were as close in theme to Luna's as to make a successful pairing. As such whilst picking up some of the host's traits a fair part of it still remains, in body and mind, Luna's inner corruption given form.

• Later confirmed in My Little Pony: FIENDship Is Magic.

The Nightmare Arc took place before Luna Eclipsed.

The lack of references to that episode is rather odd, isn't it? Especially the lack of Pip and Luna's own guards. So, what happened was, Luna returned to Ponyville for Nightmare Night after the Nightmare Arc. Everyone was scared at seeing Luna in her larger form because they had only seen Luna use that form when she was in a fight, and associated her smaller form with peaceful Luna. Luna also only rebuilt her personal guard after defeating the Nightmare Forces, hence why they didn't appear in the comic.

• By that logic, "Magic Duel", "One Bad Apple", "Wonderbolts Academy", and a few other episodes should be before Luna Eclipsed too. And who knows just how many more?

Zen and the Art of Gazebo (#9-10)

Sweetcream Scoops will play a role in this arc

Andy Price seems to be fond of her, she appeared in Issue #1 and the Rarity spotlight looking at Big Mac, and now she's on the cover◊ for Issue #9.

Big MacIntosh's thought bubbles will contrast with his speech bubbles.

Alright. It is fair to assume this does not require further explanation. A short comment should however be added for aesthetic purpose. Eeeyup!

• Confirmed, when the CMC introduce him to their fireworks display. He may be saying "Eyup", but his mind is screaming "Nope!"

Derpy's uniform on issue #9 cover A will become a recurring aspect of the character in the comics.

Because it looks really good on her.

• If nothing else, she's wearing the outfit in Rarity's Micro comic, which came out months before this Story Arc!
• Given both were drawn by Andy, it's not a big surprise they'd be the same. The question remains how consistent if/when Derpy appears in it again.

The whole arc will be a Lower-Deck Episode and give a canon(ish) personality to many background ponies.

Issue #10's cover A◊ says it all. Unless it is just for the homage.

It will partly take place during the nightmares arc.

Similar to how "Just for Sidekicks" and "Games Ponies Play" were simultaneous episodes.

• Jossed due to the appearance of Luna and three of the Mane Six in Issue #9. None of them had any time to visit a festival during the Nightmare Arc. Especially not Rarity who was captured and turned into the next Nightmare Moon right at the beginning of the story.

The "End of Flutter Valley" talk will continue in the second issue.

In the first issue, Rarity, Pinkie, and Rainbow are seen in the background talking about events that reference a G1 episode. The second issue will have Twilight, Fluttershy, and Applejack finish the tale.

• Mostly confirmed; Fluttershy and Twilight finish the tale, Applejack just talks to her brother for a bit.

The for-want-of-a-nail Trope will actually play out

While the trope has been played with (the brand name of the nail box, and the reason Big Mac is going to the store), his presence at the fair has set some events in motion, notably the CMC's firework problem. This may involve several Brick Joke and not-so-obvious Chekhov Gun s that will reveal themselves in issue #10 as part of a larger "threat" that if Big Mac had had nails to start, wouldn't have started anything.

The "Mutant Apes" Big Macintosh saved Equestria from were actually humans.

Just because of 'Rule of Funny'.

Equestrian Stallions actually have Barbie Doll Anatomy

One of the carnival attractions involves "Guess your age or sex" (emphasis added). Why would that need guesswork unless there was nothing to see?

Bookworm Arc (#15-16)

The arc was rewritten at the last minute.

• More a Doylist WMG than a Watsonian one, but did anyone else find that the pacing of this arc seemed rather... odd (a huge chunk is spent on tiresome parodies, the villain's motive comes out of left field, etc.)? And why did the solicitations make such a big deal about Daring Do coming to life, when she barely has five panels of screentime in the actual story? My theory is that the arc was hastily rewritten once Season 4 got rolling, to minimize Daring's role so that the comic wouldn't clash too badly with the show's continuity (in particular, "Daring Don't"). They obviously couldn't cut Daring out entirely, or they'd risk facing tons and tons of pissed-off fans, but they did the best they could to avoid getting tangled up in the whole "Daring Do is a real pony and all of her books actually happened!" brouhaha.

Reflections (#17-20)

The world the Mane 6 will visit...

Since they're visiting another world according to the summary, there're many ideas:

• The Equestria Girls world: It'd be a good way to show what's happened. The arc name, "Reflections", could be a hint to this.
  ** Jossed, it's an alternate universe where a good King Sombra rules and Celestia & Luna are villains.
• An alternate universe where the Mane 6 never became friends: This could show what would've happened had the Mane 6 had never forged their friendship.
  • I think it's safe the say this is jossed. They're a team (I don't wanna say friends until they actually show up) of evil ponies in this alternate universe.

The Observer Pony will have a key role

While he's only been a background element of any of the Cook/Price stories as a shout out to Fringe, this 5th arc, dealing with alternative universes, screams for more nods to the TV series as it even seems like a plot from Fringe. The Observer's placement in the Price variant cover for Issue #18 hints more that he will actually have a role in this story.

Sombra is responsible for the Mirror Universe.

OK, so the arc apparently involve a "reversed good and evil"-style Alternate Universe. My best guess? Sombra.

Basically, the Mirror Universe is part of an alternate timeline where Sombra managed to win during the "Crystal Empire" two-parter and regain his power. According to Celestia, the morality of the Empire's ruler has an effect on the rest of Equestria. Sombra's control corrupted the empire and caused everyone to flip moralities. This led to things like evil ponies and good changelings. This is why Mirror!Twilight is still a unicorn: she wasn't able to pass the test that proved she was princess material.

• Nope, it's actually an alternate universe where Sombra is the good guy.

So Celestia clearly has a thing for some guy on the other side...

Two guesses on this:

• Guess 1: Mirror!Sombra is a good guy and Mirror!Celestia is the Evil Overlord of that world.
  • So instead of being a Generic Doomsday Villain, Sombra becomes a Satellite Love Interest? That's...actually pretty clever.
  • And confirmed. Not terribly surprised.
• Guess 2: Her/Himself. Seeing as we've already had a BioShock shout out, a Lutece situation would not surprise me.

The Alt-Mane Six will have their own Elements of Harmony.

• Since they appear to be more evil, they might attempt to destroy the Prime Mane Six with an evil version of that rainbow.

Mirror Twilight is The Starscream

In a later issue, the Mirror Mane Six will travel to the main universe and attack Celestia and Luna under the orders of their princesses. When Celestia reveals that eliminating her and Luna will destroy their Princesses as well, Mirror Twilight tells her she had feigned loyalty to Mirror Celestia for years so she could find a way to rule all of Mirror Equestria herself and now has the means to be able to take out four Princesses with one stone.

Celestia's idea of "saving" her alt universe self from being evil includes hooking her up with alt!Sombra.

In an I Want My Beloved to Be Happy scenario, since her going back and forth through the mirror so much has somehow caused a bunch of the problems in the first place.

Celestia caused problems in the other world by breaking up alt!Sombra with her alternate self.

The other Celestia had some sort of relationship/crush thing with her world's Sombra, but when our Celestia started visiting alt!Sombra fell in love with her instead, causing the other Celestia to turn into an evil tyrant. That's why our Celestia feels so guilty about what's happening in the other world; if she hadn't taken alt!Sombra's affections away from her alt self, alt!Celestia might have not become evil.

• Building off of that, maybe our world's Sombra had some kind of crush on Celestia that through rejection or wanting to impress her motivated him to take over the Crystal Empire and become a tyrant.

The new Ponymania line of toys where the ponies are all goth-ified is the alternate universe's version of Rainbow Power.

Because that is probably the only way I will be okay with this◊.

• And Celestia's in it instead of Applejack because she shoved her out of the way and grabbed power for herself, or alt!Applejack got pissy about how stupid they all looked and left.

The good guys will lose.

• It's a feeling I've got, with the arc being more darker and complicated.
  • Jossed though it was Bittersweet Ending status

Mirror!Sunset Shimmer went into the mirror to escape Mirror!Celestia

Sunset was Mirror!Celestia's apprentice like in the original timeline, but unlike the pony with an unbridled ambition, she was abused to the point where when she found out about the Human Mirror, she bolted the first chance she had.

Mirror!Trixie was Luna's apprentice, and her Test was some sort of dream-based initiation

Perhaps the Element of Humility had some big dreams. Her mirror counterpart seems to.

There's still a way to save Mirror!Sombra

from his Face–Heel Turn / Fate Worse than DeathThe good counterparts to Chrysalis, Discord, Trixie, Flim and Flam brothers will come together to save him. And the Mirror Celestia and Luna will join them in their efforts.

• We don't know, but with the (worse) main Sombra having been redeemed in the comics, why not?

The Mirror Chrysalis was created in a way similar to the backstory Chrysalis gave Twilight.

Originally, Chrysalis was just a pony named Summer Azure^note a Summer Azure is a type of butterfly. Then one of the mirror world inhabitants beat her and left her lying in a swamp. (This would be a good moment for a Shout-Out: "Summer Azure, a pony barely alive.") A sapient vine with similar feeding habits to the Changelings (but not so detrimental to the "food source") found her. The vine had compassion on Summer and wanted to help her. However, she was so badly damaged that merely using healing energy wouldn't work fast enough. To save her life, the vine merged with her. And so Summer Azure, ordinary pony, became Chrysalis, the Element of Love.

Manehattan Mysteries (#21-22)

MAY Contain Spoilers for the arc.

Rough Diamond is a foil to Trixie and Babs.

• While Trixie and Babs were rotten in the past and decided to change, Rough Diamond did not change her ways. Though perhaps she also has the capacity to change, she just hasn't taken the initiative.

The Meaning of Rough Diamond's Cutie Mark

• Perhaps Rough Diamond's cutie mark is in fact representing the heroic side of herself. She used her talents of stealth and trickery to save someone.~~~~

Rough Diamond actually like playing a cop.

• Even though she went into it trying to snag jewels, Rough Diamond sincerely enjoys the job and helping people. But she faces an internal struggle between the responsibility and her own desires.

Siege of the Crystal Empire (#34-37)

The Umbrum are somehow Men of Kryptonite to Discord.

Which would explain why he, despite Fluttershy's pleas, is largely an All-Powerful Bystander for the Final Battle.

The Ponies of Dark Water (#43-45)

The hot springs were polluted by the Tantabus.

Think about it. What if the Tantabus wasn't completely destroyed? While in the dream world in "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?", Spike, in his Sir Spike persona while riding a giant Derpy, sliced through the Tantabus, but a piece of it suddenly fell through the portal into the waking world unnoticed, and right into the hot springs, polluting them with its escence. That would be why the Mane Six were turned into their negative selves and Luna was turned back into Nightmare Moon, since the Tantabus was created by her. Sound familiar to anyone? But can anyone imagine if it became just like Aku?

2013 Annual

Sunset Shimmer was possessed by the Mirage Essence.

In The Fall of Sunset Shimmer, the eponymous looks into the magic mirror and sees herself as an alicorn, right before getting the first sinister glance of her human self. Celestia dismisses the whole incident as a trick of the light, but her student soon becomes obsessed with the mirror.
This is because Sunset Shimmer has fallen prey to the Mirage Essence, the radiant but no less evil counterpart to the Nightmare Energy. Instead of inner fears, this one takes advantage of a pony's delusions of grandeur. It would later take full control of Sunset's body, thanks to a confused element of harmony, only to be exorcised by the true magic of friendship.
For the record, I really hate everything I just wrote, but I think it is dumb enough to be true.

2014 annual

The Cutie Mark Crusaders were responsible for breaking up the Humane 5

Remember, Applebloom started the whole anon-a-miss schtick because they felt jealous about Sunset Shimmer spending time with Applejack. What's to say they didn't do the same thing for the Humane 5 spending time together? Remember, it's never confirmed that Sunset Shimmer broke them up, just that fake texts were involved.

Fiendship is Magic

The mirror world from Reflections resulted from Sombra choosing to be good, rather than evil.

Denied their original escape route, the umbrum forces beneath the Crystal Empire were forced to develop an alternative. This led to them somehow corrupting Radiant Hope during one of her return visits to the Crystal Empire, and when she returned to Canterlot, the corruption spread to Princesses Celestia and Luna, and from there began to spread across all of Equestria. Sombra, meanwhile, grew to become the king of the Crystal Empire, and ruled it wisely and justly until he was overthrown by the corrupted Princess Cadance. He then somehow managed to wrest control of part of Canterlot away from Celestia and Luna (probably with the help of Discord, who in this timeline must have been freed by Sombra and converted to his cause), and ruled from there as a king-in-exile. This is why, at the end of the Reflections arc, Sombra is able to make the world such a better place simply by draining all the corruption from Celestia and Luna: since both he and the corruption are all part of the same umbrum force, he's essentially just putting it back where it belongs.

The story of the Dazzlings as seen in the comics is in-universe Disneyfication

The true events were as seen in the flashback of "Shadow Play", but over a thousand years alternate takes on the story have surfaced. This one, involving songs and music as well as making the Dazzlings much less villainous might be a version intentionally softened for foals.

The aftermath of King Orion's fall is much darker

Rainbow Dash just made the ending more poetic.Here's the unromantic version: The Changelings hired by a King Gabriel, ruler of Griffonstone,to take Timbucktu under siege and usurping King Orion.After that Chrysalis and her children succeed in the invasion, Gabriel and his men took over the kingdom and gorged out the eyes off all the twinkly-eye pegasi,including the pegasus king himself. Most of the eyes were sold to the black market for profit while Orion's were kept as trophy.