History Recap / MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E2TheCrystalEmpirePart2

* BiggerOnTheInside: The second staircase is surrounded by white emptiness and winds around the first one without passing through the throne room. As Fridge Brilliance, recall Sombra's space-time curse on the Empire; PocketDimension magic's likely for him, too.

** As of ''Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDWIssue34To37'', said card was right.

** However, he's eventually resurrected in ''Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDWIssue34To37'', though the comics are still considered LooseCanon.

* FisherKingdom: The pulse from the Crystal Heart turns all non-Crystal Ponies (and Spike) into Crystal Ponies (and a Crystal Dragon) with new hairstyles, but it only lasts within the borders of the Empire. Additionally, it's shown emitting auroras and positive energy across the rest of Equestria -- a CallBack to Celestia's words about the Empire's CosmicKeystone role in the world.

* RealityWarper: Sombra once magically converted the whole Empire into a {{Mordor}} and nearly does it again here, he made it completely vanish for centuries before this episode, and it seems that he even rigged the Castle with {{Pocket Dimension}}s of stairs and traps (even giving the last one TeleportInterdiction) in order to hide the Heart.

* TrapMaster: Sombra's likely the best example in the show.

* XanatosGambit: King Sombra's booby traps. Whether the Pony reaches the Crystal Heart or not, they're screwed. This is doubly so in the present situation, as reaching the Crystal Heart sets off a trap that allows him to spread his dark crystals ''inside'' the Castle even though the barrier was up. Total trap count: hidden entrance within the throne room, doorway enchanted to both evade opening '''''and''''' MindRape anypony capable of stopping it, insanely tall spire to ascend, booby-trapped platform that surrounds any intruders in black crystals '''''and''''' nullifies teleportation magic -- you need to be a Unicorn who can use BlackMagic to even get past the first one. Put it this way: King Sombra almost won, as there were only two things that truly defeated him: Shining Armor's FastballSpecial and the presence of Spike. He almost won by [[CrazyPrepared planning for almost every eventuality]].
** Even as a seemingly mindless beast, he seems to retain enough awareness to invoke this on Cadance: Sooner or later, she'll be too tired to keep him at bay... But she can't let up, or else he'll just return to power even quicker.
** He even pulled this on Celestia and Luna during their original confrontation with him: He wins? Good. They win? His backup curse on the Empire renders their victory meaningless.

* FastballSpecial: Shining literally throws his wife at the crystal heart. It was either that or it end up in Sombra's hooves.

* PleaseDontLeaveMe: Okay, so it's more like "please don't make me leave you", but this, toward Twilight, is essentially Spike's [[YourWorstNightmare worst nightmare]].

* RealityWarper: Sombra once magically converted the entire Empire into a {{Mordor}} and nearly does it again here, he made it completely vanish for centuries before this episode, and it seems that he even rigged the Castle with {{Pocket Dimension}}s of stairs and traps (even giving the last one TeleportInterdiction) in order to hide the Heart.

** Even as a seemingly mindless beast, he seems to retain enough awareness to invoke this on Cadance. Sooner or later, she'll be too tired to keep him at bay. But she can't let up, or else he'll just return to power even quicker.
** He even pulled this on Celestia and Luna during their original confrontation with him. He wins? Good. They win? His backup curse on the Empire renders their victory meaningless.

** As of ''Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDWIssue34To37'', said trading card was right.

* BiggerOnTheInside: The second staircase is surrounded by white emptiness and winds around the first one without passing through the throne room. As Fridge Brilliance, recall Sombra's space-time curse on the Empire -- PocketDimension magic's likely for him, too.

* ChekhovsSkill: Celestia's demonstration to Twilight of what would happen if King Sombra returned back in Part 1 gave Twilight the essential knowledge of using dark magic to reveal his hidden secrets and ultimately recover the Crystal Heart. Twilight perfectly replicated it after seeing it only once. She's that good at spellcasting!

** See DangerouslyGenreSavvy for King Sombra.

* DangerouslyGenreSavvy: King Sombra was ''extremely'' thorough in hiding the Crystal Heart and ensuring no ''one pony'' could find it. Only the presence of [[SpannerInTheWorks Spike]] allows victory. To elaborate, he made the path to the Crystal Heart inaccessible without the use of dark magic, which none of the slaves could have used since they are all earth ponies. If they do get past this then it leads into a perilously long spiral staircase downward. At the bottom is a door that keeps moving around unless you blast it with dark magic as well, but trying to open it afterwards will result in a LotusEaterMachine. Even if you get snapped out of it and correctly open the door with other magic, you now have to climb an equally perilous and seemingly twice as long staircase ''up'' (unless you're CrazyPrepared like Twilight Sparkle and have a gravity inversion spell to slide along the underside). Lastly, as a final measure, anypony who walks up to the Crystal Heart proper will trigger an alarm alerting him to their presence. For bonus measures, his dark crystals form a cage that cannot be teleported out of. All in all, a very thorough protection {{plan}}, even assuming somepony had the courage and forethought to hunt it down preemptively.

* NearVillainVictory: Sombra comes within a hairsbreadth of winning simply by [[DangerouslyGenreSavvy planning]]. He even has his original body restored moments before Cadance gets hold of the Crystal Heart. If Cadance missed then everything would have been back the way it was before Celestia and Luna first defeated him.

* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething:
** ''Prince'' Shining Armor now runs the Crystal Empire with Princess Cadance.
** ''King'' Sombra, natch. (See CrazyPrepared and DangerouslyGenreSavvy above.)

* TrapMaster: Sombra's likely the best example in the show. (See DangerouslyGenreSavvy and XanatosGambit.)

* XanatosGambit: King Sombra's booby traps. Whether the Pony reaches the Crystal Heart or not, they're screwed. This is doubly so in the present situation, as reaching the Crystal Heart sets off a trap that allows him to spread his dark crystals ''inside'' the Castle even though the barrier was up. Total trap count: hidden entrance within the throne room, doorway enchanted to both evade opening '''''and''''' MindRape anypony capable of stopping it, insanely tall spire to ascend, booby-trapped platform that surrounds any intruders in black crystals '''''and''''' nullifies teleportation magic -- you need to be a Unicorn who can use BlackMagic to even get past the first one. Put it this way: King Sombra almost won, as there were only two things that truly defeated him: Shining Armor's FastballSpecial and the presence of Spike. He almost won by '''''[[DangerouslyGenreSavvy planning for almost every eventuality]]'''''.

* XanatosGambit: King Sombra's booby traps. Whether the pony reaches the Crystal Heart or not, they're screwed. This is doubly so in the present situation, as reaching the Crystal Heart sets off a trap that allows him to spread his dark crystals ''inside'' the Castle even though the barrier was up. Total trap count: hidden entrance within the throne room, doorway enchanted to both evade opening ''and'' MindRape anypony capable of stopping it, insanely tall spire to ascend, booby-trapped platform that surrounds any intruders in black crystals ''and'' nullifies teleportation magic -- you need to be a Unicorn who can use BlackMagic to even get past the first one. Put it this way: King Sombra almost won, as there were only two things that truly defeated him -- Shining Armor's FastballSpecial and the presence of Spike. He almost won by ''[[DangerouslyGenreSavvy planning for almost every eventuality]].''

!!Continued from "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E1TheCrystalEmpirePart1 The Crystal Empire - Part 1]]"

-> Written by Meghan [=McCarthy=]

The Mane 6 return to Canterlot, where a new stained glass portrait of Spike holding the Crystal Heart has been put up. Princess Celestia explains to Twilight that although she did not accomplish the task she was told to do, her willingness to see the deed through rather than accomplish it herself, thus attending to the needs of the many as opposed to herself, has allowed her to pass her test and she can begin the next stage of her magical education. Twilight and her friends celebrate on the train ride back to Ponyville as night falls, revealing the aurora borealis that has begun to emanate from the Crystal Empire in the night sky. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna watch the train go and [[SequelHook Celestia nods at Luna, who summons a book with stars and swirls on the cover...]]

* XanatosGambit: King Sombra's booby-traps. Whether the pony reaches the Crystal Heart or not, they're screwed. This is doubly so in the present situation, as reaching the Crystal Heart sets off a trap that allows him to spread his dark crystals ''inside'' the castle even though the barrier was up. Total trap count: Hidden entrance within the throne room. Doorway enchanted to both evade opening ''and'' MindRape anypony capable of stopping it. Insanely tall spire to ascend. Booby-trapped platform that surrounds any intruders in black crystal, ''and'' nullifies teleportation magic. You need to be a unicorn who can use BlackMagic to even get past the first one. Put it this way: King Sombra almost won, as there were only two things that truly defeated him. Shining Armor's FastballSpecial, and the presence of Spike. He almost won by ''[[DangerouslyGenreSavvy planning for most every eventuality]].''

* RealityWarper: Sombra made the whole Empire vanish for centuries, his mere presence starts reverting the Empire to {{Mordor}}, and he seemingly made {{Pocket Dimension}}s of stairs and traps (even giving the last one TeleportInterdiction) to hide the Heart.

** ''King'' Sombra, natch. (See CrazyPrepared and DangerouslyGenreSavvy above.).

* FisherKingdom: The pulse from the Crystal Heart turns all non-crystal ponies into crystal ponies with new hairstyles, but it only lasts within the borders of the empire.

** The MacGuffin for the Empire is a Crystal Heart that spreads love and joy. What's Cadence's cutie mark again? It should be noted that when Cadence lands on the fake Crystal Heart with the real one, the identical crystal on her cutie mark is also glowing.

* MacGuffin: The Crystal Heart, which Twilight needs to find to keep the Empire safe.

* NonindicativeName: Depending on which screen shot you use, the city looked barely a mile or two across, and the gateway looked to be only a few miles from the city. [[VestigialEmpire Isn't that a little small for an Empire?]]

** Rarity calls spike by his nickname, "Spikey-Wikey", from [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E24OwlsWellThatEndsWell "Owls Well That Ends Well"]], [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E10SecretOfMyExcess "Secret Of My Excess"]], and [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E21DragonQuest "Dragon Quest"]].

* RealityWarper: Sombra made the Empire vanish for centuries, his presence starts reverting the Empire to {{Mordor}}, and he seemingly made {{Pocket Dimension}}s of stairs and traps (even giving the last one TeleportInterdiction) to hide the Heart.

* RealityWarper: Sombra made the Empire vanish for centuries, his presence starts reverting the Empire to {{Mordor}}, and he [[spoiler:seemingly made {{Pocket Dimension}}s of stairs and traps (even giving the last one TeleportInterdiction) to hide the Heart.]]

* StereoFibbing: Applejack and Rarity can't keep their stories straight as to why they don't have the real Crystal Heart.

* RealityWarper: Sombra made the whole Empire vanish for centuries, his mere presence starts reverting the Empire to {{Mordor}}, and he [[spoiler:seemingly made multiple {{Pocket Dimension}}s of stairs and traps (even putting TeleportInterdiction in the last one) to hide the Heart.]]

* TrapMaster: Sombra's likely the best example in the series. (See DangerouslyGenreSavvy and XanatosGambit.)

* RealityWarper: Sombra made the whole Empire vanish for centuries, his mere presence starts reverting the Empire to {{Mordor}}, and he [[spoiler:seemingly put the Crystal Heart path through multiple {{Pocket Dimension}}s of stairs and traps (even putting TeleportInterdiction in the last one).]]

* RealityWarper: Sombra made the Empire vanish for centuries, his mere presence starts reverting the Empire to {{Mordor}}, and he [[spoiler:seems to have put the Crystal Heart path through multiple {{Pocket Dimension}}s of stairs and traps (even putting TeleportInterdiction in the last one).]]

* RealityWarper: Sombra made the Empire vanish for centuries, his mere presence starts reverting the Empire to {{Mordor}}, and he [[spoiler:seems to have put the Crystal Heart path through multiple {{Pocket Dimension}}s of stairs and traps.]]

* BiggerOnTheInside: The second staircase is surrounded by white emptiness and winds around the first one without passing through the throne room. As Fridge Brilliance, recall Sombra's curse sending the Crystal Empire to the future -- PocketDimension magic seems feasible for him, too.

* RealityWarper: Sombra not only made a whole kingdom vanish for centuries, but also [[spoiler:seems to have put the path to the Crystal Heart through multiple {{Pocket Dimension}}s of stairs and traps.]]