Why does Applejack's Living Lie Detector power make the denizens of Sunny Town have a My God, What Have I Done? reaction in addition to making them see tfhrough Gaia's spell when Mitta was the only one in the game itself to realize they'd gotten the fate they deserved? Applejack is forcing them see through their own self-delusion that what they did was justified as well.
Fluttercruel got herself and Fluttershy drunk before they left for the Everfree Forest. This explains a bit better why Fluttershy succumbed to the darkness this time because drinking lowers inhibitions and makes one more easily depressed.
Fluttershy didn't JUST go Nightmare, she turned into a complete Eldritch Abomination as well. Why? It's revealed she'd obtained a powerful artifact that Luna created called the Elder Horn as well and Fluttershy states she was already a Nightmare when she found it (apparently having already liberated Sunnytown's population before even finding it). Nightmare Whisper was a combination of going Nightmare AND absorbing a powerful Artifact of Doom at the same time, it's only natural the result would be anything but pretty.
"It would be rather silly that the Elements needed a pony that held them in their heart to work unless they needed someone's heart to guide them: to show them the difference between the laughter that brings friends together, and the kind that pulls them apart." At first it seems a bit more like this refers to just the Element of Laughter in Pinkamena's talk to Pinkie. However, when you take AJ's vision quest into context, you find out that Pinkie Pie was actually something of The Heart in the group, as her death lead to madness, death and despair. Only goes to show how laughter can make a group stand up together.
Twilight is the Reincarnation of Minty, Pinkie's best friend from the G3 World, which Pinkie caused to happen personally. Pinkie's Gasp!! moment when they first met suddenly makes a lot more sense. It's even pointed out in the Origins arc, when Twilight is asking Celestia about this.
Why did Discord torture Philomena so brutally when most other pets were merely transformed into monsters? She helped Celestia and Luna defeat him three thousand years prior, and, while not mentioned, it's likely he couldn't torture Luna's Windigo, because it was a creature of ice. It may no longer have been nothing, but ice was still impervious to his powers.
It certainly seems like Diamond hallucinates seeing Silver while nearing her goal, but it's actually due to the Psychic Link created between her and Sweetie Belle during the Day of Discord, She keeps feeling that Silver is nearby because she is feeling her presence through Sweetie Belle meeting with her.
Celestia and Luna's treatment of Fluttershy after the Nightmare Whisper incident makes a lot more sense with The Reveal that the Elements complete a Nightmare's Alicornification. Fluttershy is now a goddess, so it makes sense they'd hammer in just how badly she screwed up so she takes the power she now has seriously.
This also may make it something of a Fridge Horror when it is revealed in the Shining Armor arc (and again in the 7 Dreams/Nightmares Bright Eyes story) that Everfree Forest is one of the three places of power where the world's leylines intersect, its exact location on the Castle of the Two Sisters, this might even be another reason why Fluttershy was able to spread her fog so quickly. Thus, this may imply that Fluttershy could have nearly abused the world's leylines. Though it is strange that Celestia did not mention this fact to Fluttershy when she confronts her in her dreams, though this might mean either Celestia decided it was not necessary to mention it for Fluttershy's sake, or Fluttershy already sensed the power within the area.
Celestia was wrong (impossible, right?) or she lied about the effects of the Truth on ponies lacking cutie marks. As it turns out, just like how ponies of Sunny Town were forced to remember the truth after gazing into AJ's eyes, Applebloom revealed that she was also affected by the Truth during AJ's visit, and even saw an alternate timeline.
Word of God: This is 100% because after her adventure in Story of the Blanks there is nothing innocent about her. Celestia's statement that the innocent couldn't be affected by the truth was completely correct.
Worth noting is how Celestia knew of the Story of the Blanks through Luna, yet still summoned Applebloom, clearly demonstrating how she really did believe that the lack of a Cutie Mark would be sufficient protection from the Truth. It doesn't seem to have helped one iota. Or maybe she lied about that protection because she foresaw the need for AB to befriend SS, but given how she missed the mark on DT with Discord, that's implausible.
The scene before Twilight Tragedy goes to speak to Apple Pie is taken directly from a piece of Recursive Fanfiction. Why is this important? In that fanfic, Twilight Tragedy's words inadvertently redeemed somepony she didn't know was listening, namely Alternate!Discord. What happens in her interactions with Apple Pie? Apple Pie inadvertently redeems her, without knowing Twilight Tragedy was hearing her, as she believed she was talking to an Earth Pony Filly named Half Light Dawn.
Firebloom and her brother Orange Chance were actually born in different timelines. But Orange Jack mentions both her children when she meets AJ. The only logical way this could happen (given OJ's character and love of her family) is that her first husband DIED.
Confirmed in "AJ's Dreams Part 2". One of the cruel truths Nightmare Mirror shows Orangejack is that after her first husband died, she was lonely, couldn't raise Firebloom on her own, and needed someone to fill the void, so she had Orange Chance with a partner she's implied to have chosen on impulse.
As in Real Life, mules and hinnies are almost completely sterile, explaining why the interbreeding of donkeys and Earth ponies is undetectable in the Epilogue timeline.
Something in regard to how Rancor's family works. "Dad says I need substance, Pandora thinks I need a hobby, Anarchy thinks I'm cliché, and Strife says I need more than one note." Hmmm, so Fear says Violence and Passions need something to actually use, Imagination says she needs something to direct herself towards instead of going every which way, Rebellion against Authority says she's too obvious (playing tropes too straight?), and Survival of the Fittest says she needs versatility. Makes sense to me.
After Rarity steals Fluttercruel's Element of Cruelty and the Spontaneous Weapon Creation power that goes with it, she shows far more versatility with it than Fluttercruel ever did, being able to turn her blood not only weapons, but a far more varied number of constructs and turn it into anything from metal to diamond. Why? Fluttercruel only demonstrated ONE aspect of the Element of Cruelty (namely, sadistic torture and murder), not the other aspects of it. Rarity has demonstrated not only being able to be cruel in that way, but Cruel to Be Kind, Tranquil Fury, and so on. Rarity simply represents a more varied spectrum of cruelty than Fluttercruel did.
It might seem strange that Rancor would stab Discord In the Back after all her talk about how blood is Thicker Than Water. But then remember the Draconequi's idea of just punishment for a major screw up was 'be horrifically killed and resurrected several hundred/thousand times.' Discord broke a Draconequi taboo by eating his own brother, Havoc only permitted it due to his Avatar having gone insane even by Draconequus standards. Also remember she's the Anthropomorphic Personification of Revenge and Discord murdered his own brother, something she hurts him again when he takes lightly. All that in mind, it's little surprise she did it and her lack of taking it seriously despite Cruelty taking it very hard makes perfect sense as, from her family's perspective, there was nothing wrong with it.
Starcatcher and Brightglow are stated to be the mortal forms of Celestia and Cadance respectively. Both have unusual markings, most notably on their legs and head (though this wasn't drawn attention to in Brightglow's case, but the character had star markings). They were Pegasi, Earth Ponies use their magic through their legs primarily and unicorns do it through their horns, on their heads. The markings could likely be their true Alicorn nature shining through by representing the other two tribes.
The Dark World Arc is by far the largest arc of the story. This makes sense when you realize it's not so much an arc of Reharmonized Ponies as the continuation of the Discorded Ponies, which only had one arc. If looked at that way, it technically had multiple arcs of its own; the search for the redemption of the Elements of Harmony and discovery of the new bearers, Storming the Castle, and its own Finale Arc.
In an Alternate Universe Rainbow Dash managed to kill Nightmare Granfalloon while the other Nightmares we've seen so far that were fought in full took FAR more effort. Why? Nightmare Whisper was using the Elder Horn and was mutated by the entirety of the world's pain and Nightmare Mirror had absorbed at least 40 of her alternate selves. Neither of them were 'normal' Nightmares and had been amplified in some way while Nightmare Granfalloon was a 'normal' Nightmare.
It seemed a little odd that when G3 Dash and Firefly merged together in Traitor Dash's fractured mind, they would turn into Rainbow dash all over again. However, The Reveal that Rainbow's new element of chaos is Free Will suddenly has it all make sense. Rainbow's original element was loyalty: Choosing to stick with something. Her discorded element was treachery: choosing to step away from something. However, Loyalty and Treachery are but signs of the choices we make. And the only way we can really make those choices is if we have Free Will to do so. So once Traitor Dash restored her mind, she had to join with her old self in order for her element to be whole.
It's been revealed Dark World!Fluttercruel was born Discorded but unDiscorded by Sparkler's memories, keep in mind that Fluttercruel did continue to get progressively worse just like all of the Discorded Mane Six in the actual episode, and that the other two Fluttercruels who turned good both were hit by Twilight's Memory Spell along with Fluttershy.
The Princesses and Discord both seem to remember the Alicorn/Draconequi War being far more costly to both sides than it appears to have been. This makes sense when you realize all three appeared to be the youngest of the gods at the time (as far as gods go), with Luna having been age regressed to a child not long before that as punishment and Dark World!Discord even remarks the state of insanity he found himself in towards the end left his memory somewhat blurry. It makes sense that them being younger, they'd have remembered the War as far more devastating to both sides (particularly in Celestia's case, as she's been confirmed to have lost at least one sibling in the war and seen another crippled) than it ultimately was.
Rancor takes the name 'Disruption' after absorbing Destruction's power. That's one of the names Destruction introduced himself with during the G3 Retcon. Rancor literally became his replacement!
Nightmare Paradox keeps saying that Apple Pie shouldn't exist at all. This is strange since her Start of Darkness reveals that her Apple Pie was not only her friend, but performed a Heroic Sacrifice to let her plan succeed in the first place and that her Nightmare title as Nightmare Purgatory was 'The Most Vengeful Friend'. But then remember that this means Paradox herself was the one who made that Heroic Sacrifice into a Senseless Sacrifice. Paradox has a serious Moral Myopia, so it makes perfect sense that she'd try to convince herself that Apple Pie should never have existed so she doesn't have to deal with the thought that she made her death meaningless.
In "My Little Alicorn", Rainbow Dash is the one who raises the question of who the 'Alicorn Witch' is that Aquamarine mentioned. The Alicorn Witch turns out to be Nightmare Paradox, who says they shouldn't be able to question who she is. This makes sense when you realize that Rainbow Dash is the Element of Free Will once she purified her Element of Chaos, which is said to protect its Bearer from mind control, likely including glamours that say 'you can't ask that question'.
Further fridge brilliance from the fact that Nightmare Paradoxneveraddresses Rainbow Dash after her purification. She didn't because Rainbow could've asked the unaskable question and broken her glamour like Twilight ultimately does.
Discord notably didn't appear to Zecora in person, instead having Poison Joke do his dirty work. Zecora lives in Everfree, a place made specifically to defend its inhabitants against Discord, but Poison Joke is one of Discord's creations. He couldn't affect or enter the forest himself, but he could control one of his creations inside it.
In the Dark World, it might seem strange that Nightmare Paradox doesn't have her Nightmare Charity...until one remembers that for ponies to become Nightmares, they have to give up all but one aspect of themselves, and Rarity's Element of Chaos is Greed, which would prevent her from parting with anything she desires to keep.
Rancor only gets 1 interaction with the mysterious voice, before it ditches talking to her. However, the big difference is that Rancor could actually hear the voice, and was able to question who it was. Something mind you, which took a LONG time for any of the "locals" aside from Discord to figure out. So how does that work? Well, remember, Rancor is technically a Canon Immigrant. Someone who entered into the timeline rather than being a natural part of it. Perhaps since she wasn't from the original "Groundhog Day" Loop, it meant that she wasn't affected like the others were, allowing her to actually process outside of the GEASS that was on everyone else.
Also, Rancor figured out the voice's identity, and even said that they were alike. How is this so, when normal comparisons are with Discord. Well remember, Rancor's the spirit of violence, passions and revenge. And Nightmare Paradox's entire business is vengeance against Discord for all eternity. So in a way, Rancor is right. They are alike, since a nightmare is 1 part of the self overemphasized. As Paradox is defined by her desire for revenge, she is in a way exactly like Rancor, even down to liking violence against others (or in Paradox's case, against 1).
Rota Fortuna got a new wing when one of hers was sawed off by discord in Ragnarok. It's a clockwork wing. While the idea of artificial limbs is nothing really new, it might seem a little odd that a GOD would take it on. Until you realize that Rota embodies both Fate and Free Will. And now she has wings to symbolize these things perfectly: A mechanical wing for the fates that can be chosen but not deviated from (think, multiple paths but you can't go off the paths), and an organic one for the will to action that mortals can choose to make their choices meaningful.
Discord is known to have a rather large dislike of His Mother, which he mentions that Shady was supposed to be different from. However, other than what She is, we never see Entropy treat Discord poorly, in fact the one time they're shown interacting, She actually ends his punishment early. However, we know from the backstory that Destruction was generally treated poorly by Entropy. Destruction himself was too child-like and naive to form grudges and destruction is his nature, so perhaps it's meaning is different to him. However, who's to say that when Discord ate Destruction, he didn't get his memories as well? And that Discord experienced them as if they were his? Perhaps Discord's bitterness towards Entropy stems in part from Destruction's memories and not his own?
Rota Fortuna calls Nightmare Eclipse out on her Revenge Before Reason mentality. Remember that Rota had her wing permanently severed by Discord during the war but still felt she'd gone too far in getting her revenge. This shows just how far Eclipse had gone.
At one point, Twilight for a moment forgets Shining Armor existed while talking with Trixie, which seemed to happen earlier in his arc. This makes sense with the reveal that Shining Armor is Trapped in the Past trying to catch up to the present while his past is still being filled in and his arc runs on San Dimas Time with the rest of the series. Therefore, it makes perfect sense that he could slip her mind: she's still forming memories of him as he progresses in his own arc, meaning at the time, she had fewer memories of him to remember.
The only really weird thing about this is that it's roughly around the time of Discord's 3rd coming, and given the way Mind Games 8 seemed to indicate that Shining would survive all the way to his wedding, then wouldn't she surely have remembered him by that point?
The Interviewers have always seemed more conversational and friendly with Shining than most anyone else, actually conversing with him and eventually changing Interviewer's Notes to Friend's Notes when talking with him as opposed to the others who they generally just help out. This makes sense with the reveal that all four were born from Amicitia: they're more friendly with Shining because he's their brother!
The Reveal about Shining Armor carrying Amicitia's light explains several things about this Shining Armor. First, it explains his Ripple-Proof Memory. An alicorn can never forget what they've done or experienced, so it would make some degree of sense that shining would remember the timeline where he defeated Makarov. Second, it adds some explanation on why the Wolf wants Shining to "return her light". The Wolf's essentially trying to get the alicorn of happy endings back, so that gives its hunt a new dimension that makes Shining's existence a bit more awkward.
I always wondered why there was no Nightmare Charity in any of the Story. Than I watched The Return Of Harmony again and noticed that Rarity was the easiest one for Discord (Even Celestia said in Applejacks Reharmonization Chapter that Rarity was attacked from within by her own inner demon). Now take in contrast Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. Both stick very much true to their Elements (Rainbow was LOYAL to Cloudsdale), but they were also the easiest ones to become Nightmares. So while Rarity might has been the easiest one to be Discorded it would be much harder to turn her into a Nightmare and considering what we already saw of the otherMane 6Nightmare Forms we seen so far this might be a been a good thing
Chrysalis didn't know Kabuto had been defeated during her Sadistic Choice to Twilight, even though it happened not to long before. Why? The Changelings communications had been disrupted by Digger Wasp's defeat, meaning information traveled much slower than it should.
It's mentioned that Twilight put explosive trap runes in the mines beneath the castle while under Chrysalis' control but later this is how they re-enter the castle for their final confrontation with Chrysalis. How? Twilight still remembered placing them. Meaning she likely knows a way around them.
Why did Entropy agree to help Nightmare Manacle with her plan to reunite with her Twilight Sparkle? Manacle wanted to become the Goddess of Breaking Loops and Cycles. This fits with Entropy's portfolio of ending things and her desire to end suffering.
Despite both getting their powers from the same place Button seems much more versatile and skilled with his powers than Truffle, who mostly lets his Powers Do the Fighting (even his sword is long and he doesn't seem particularly adapt. This makes sense when you realize Button Mash has Personality Powers and Truffle doesn't. Button got video game powers, and his a hardcore gamer with a father who's a game designer. Button has powers he knows in depth and is familiar with. Truffle got Magical Girl inspired powers, when his interests are in cooking. It's heavily implied the Rumor Tootsie wrote right before she left was giving Truffle his powers, and given how little interest she had in Truffle's own interests, it seemed likely she just gave him those powers to match her own Magical Girl themed ones without thinking about what he'd be comfortable with. Button has powers he knows VERY well while Truffle was likely just handed to him by Tootsie without much thought.
Fluttercruel was able to escape Oblivion on her own once she beat off the shadows holding here. Remember that Fluttercruel is a Demi-Draconequus, and one ability Cupid (another Demi God) was capable of doing was moving freely between the physical and spiritual world.
The lantern Razzaroo (the candidate Concept of Wishes and Miracles) gave to Applejack which was in turn given to Featherweight is very capable of harming Nightmare Diamond Tiara. This makes sense when one considers Diamond's theme is despair and hopelessness, Wishes and Miracles are both things of hope.
In Dark World 33, Twilight, on the path to becoming the Concept of Magic, encounters her old friend Razzaroo in the spirit world, who is on the same path. Since there can only be a single Concept of Magic for one universe, Razzaroo challenges her to a duel for the right to become the Alicorn of Magic even as Twilight pleads that they're friends and even offers to let her become the Concept if she wants it so badly. They have a short magical duel before Twilight realizes the fight is pointless and refuses to keep fighting, even when Razzaroo wants to continue fighting her. Turns out, this is not a test to determine which of them has the right to become an alicorn, but to determine which one will become which Concept when they both become alicorns.
When Razzaroo challenges her to a magic duel, Twilight pleads with her to remember their former friendship, offers to let her become the Concept of Magic, and only starts to fight her when she truly has no other choice. Her actions prove that her previous friendship with Razzaroo is more important to her than her desire to become Magic itself (and remember, friendship IS magic in this universe). Hence, Twilight becomes Princess Amicitia, the Concept of Magic and Friendship.
But what happens to Razzaroo, now that she's lost? She cannot become a second Concept of Magic, obviously, but the power and knowledge she has accumulated can't just vanish into thin air. She strove with all her heart to become a Concept, even to the point of being willing to challenge her best friend for the position. What did her actions prove? That her desire, or her wish, to become a Concept is more important to her than her previous friendship with Twilight (and this is foreshadowed by the presence of Twinkle Wish). She becomes Princess Jiniri, the Concept of Wishes and Miracles.
Before the duel, after trying and failing to talk Razzaroo down from the fight, Twilight asks her if she remembers her past selves where the two of them were friends. Razzaroo affirms that she does, but goes on to say that it doesn't matter, because their past lives are gone and trying to remember their previous selves' memories would be, in her words, "as pointless as chickens trying to remember being eggs". So, in other words, she considers her old friendships meaningless because the ponies she made them with don't exist anymore (at least, not in a physical sense—their Shadows are in Entropy's realm while their Lights were reborn as different ponies in the next universe). But recall the final battle of the Dark World arc, where Twilight used a time spell to summon multiple sets of Element bearers from across the multiverse, showing Paradox the power that true friendship has, to persist across timelines and universes, between life and death.
Twilight: The magic between friends transcends time, space, reality, death, beyond all barriers! Friendship doesn't just pierce the barrier between life and death, but all barriers, everywhere! This is a friendship that pierces the walls between worlds! We've been made, unmade, and remade, but the links we've forged between our souls are all still here!
And if we assume "Friendship = Magic" to be true, Razzaroo wanted to be the Concept of Magic, which is also the Concept of Friendship, but she only cared about becoming all-powerful Magic and failed to understand the true value of Friendship. Something Twilight understood, but she didn't. Razzaroo lost the Secret Test of Character the second she decided to throw her old friendships away for the sake of becoming a goddess.
Celestia's alter ego is an Earth Pony tabloid writer named Sunny Days. Jump forward to the Wedding Arc and it's revealed that Changelings are the result of what happened to the Flutterponies after Discord was done with them. Now Alicorns are stated to have the power of all the pony tribes, not just the three we are used to. Celestia may have been using her innate Changeling magic to become Sunny Days this whole time without even realizing it, thinking it was just her unicorn magic at work.
When Sunset Shimmer becomes an alicorn she calls it "Solaris" instead of the canon name "Daydream Shimmer" when suggested. Her adoptive mother's full name? Celestia Amaterasu Solaris Equestria. Coincidence? I don't think so.
So, during chapter 20th of the Last Battle Arc, when Rarity mentioned that Nightmare Moon - much like the rest of the Nightmares the Mane Six had previously fought - wanted to "fix" the world ( "Luna, Fluttershy, you... You were all hurting in different ways, wanting to 'fix' the world in different ways." ), it left me wondering how does blocking out the sun permanently equals "fixing the world", but then I remembered that when it comes to the Nightmares: There's always some kind of logic albeit an extremely flawed one that was based on something that is debatable at best and untrue at worst, in this universe the concepts don't just represent the things they're god of; they ARE the thing they represent, and that Nightmare Moon's whole plan was about permanently forcing the sun, and therefore her sister herself, out of the universe because of envy towards her. Keeping these things in mind, it seemed that at the time Luna became Nightmare Moon, she had this incredibly distorted mental model of how Celestia is supposed to be in her head, which painted her sister as the villain who wanted to make the world unfair/worse. Hence why Nightmare Moon would think permanently blocking out was also saving the world: Because in Nightmare Moon's head, Celestia - the sun itself - is the villain who's out to make the world unfair and Nightmare Moon is the hero who's out to make the world fair.
Why is Anarchy so lazy, preferring to play videogames in his personal dimension all day instead of doing his cosmic duty as a Concept? Concepts are supposed to be dedicated to their duties of keeping the universe in check. Anarchy is the Concept of Rebellion...so he is rebelling against his own Concept by not fully dedicating himself to doing his job. So what he's doing is embodying his Concept, by not embodying his Concept. A paradox that Apple Pie would love.
An indicator that someone has been brainwashed by Chrysalis is that their irises are tinted green, as shown by Moondancer's Sheep in Wolf's Clothing cover that was simply made by having Twinkle Shine change the colour of her eyes back to green. When The Reveal occurred during the wedding, why didn't anyone notice Applejack, Sweetie Belle and Spike being brainwashed until it was too late? It's because their normal eye colour is also green.
D___t's rebellion against Entropy makes a certain amount of sense from a troper's or movie buff's point of view. Remember the classic story of the hero who rebels against their evil parent to free the world of tyranny, like Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader? Well, D___t believed he was doing exactly that, playing the hero trying to free the universe from the claws of the evil Entropy...except that he failed to understand his Mother's true nature, and by extension the nature of Concepts as a whole. Killing a Concept is not the equivalent of removing a tyrant king from his throne, but knocking down one of the pillars that holds up reality itself, with catastrophic results—as achieved by the death/erasure of Cupid, which resulted in literally incalculable numbers of lives erased due to the effects of his actions on the universe, and he was only a demigod. Nightmare Paradox's plan to kill Rota Fortuna (assuming she ever got around to it) would have caused even more multiversal destruction and disaster. In short, if you're a player in this series and your plan involves killing a Concept, you should probably try something else if you don't feel like royally screwing over the entire universe.
In Dark World, the Grogar play shows Grogar following the Evil Overlord List, but creating new flaws that are exploited trying to avoid the original mistake. Chrysalis doing something similar due to knowing what happened in the main universe results in a similar outcome when avoiding her canon mistakes creates new flaws the heroes exploit.
In some ways, Fluttercruel is like a younger, more immature version of her paternal aunt, Strife — the concept of natural selection, evolution, and survival. In Season 2/Pearls, her speech to Fluttershy about how kindness isn’t natural and overrides natural selection sounds like something Strife might say...except that’s only one side of it. While Strife is survival of the fittest, her philosophy doesn't boil down to "the strong crushing the weak into the dirt is the natural way of life," which is what Fluttercruel is essentially saying in that scene. Instead, Strife cares more about what helps a species survive and continue as a whole, whether it’s strength, intelligence, the ability to adapt to their environment...or friendship. Living and working together as a group for survival, like ants, bees, wolves and other animals do, is the evolutionary precursor to The Power of Friendship. Kindness, Fluttershy’s special talent, is part of that portfolio: deciding to help others survive, caring for the sick and weak so they have a chance to survive and pass on their genes. And indeed, Fluttercruel herself turns out to have a variation of her mother’s kindness as her special talent — being Cruel to Be Kind by helping others who can’t, or won't, help themselves.
Out of Nightmare Eclipse's gallery of Nightmares, why is Nightmare Mirror the only one who recognizes that they're all evil and insane? She is the self-professed Cruelest of Truths...and that means she can't hide from the biggest Awful Truth there is, even if it applies to her: that they've been keeping the Dark World in an infinite loop of misery and condemning countless living beings to Oblivion with every reset just to torture an already beaten and repentant Discord, and that Nightmare Eclipse will never get around to making the Golden World they talk so much about because she's enjoying torturing Discord way too much. In fact, being unable to hide from the Awful Truth about herself seems to be innate to all Nightmare Mirrors; a different version of her voluntarily allows herself to be arrested after making a perfect world free from lies.
In Dark World, one of the things Discord experiments with is making some ponies ridiculously happy and obsessed with exercising their special talents, with their cutie marks expanding to cover half of their entire bodies. This might be a stealthy reference to the G1 Twice as Fancy Ponies.
It's briefly alluded to in the narrative, but nearly all of Ponyville's residents, including its primary healthcare provider, have been turned into foals. What's going to happen if somepony gets hurt or sick, or there's a fire, or some other crisis that Princess Gaia's Knight can't handle alone and Princess Gaia can't get to in time?
To be fair, it's likely that if Princess Gaia is to successfully take over the entirety of Equestria, any concepts that go against Gaia's perfect world will no longer exist at all.
Additionally, on at least one occasion we see pertinent medical knowledge return to Nurse Redheart. This could be extrapolated, especially since they're still able to do things like set explosives safely…
It is implied in Loose Canon that the now-brainwashed mane cast are remotely commanding Princess Gaia's armies, thinking it to be a fun board game. If this is true, it is quite possible that Trixie and Twilight Sparkle are unwittingly providing a front for Princess Gaia to recruit their own mothers as her knights.
The fate of the unborn foals of Equestria when Princess Gaia turns everypony into foals, including pregnant mares. Specifically referenced by Princess Celestia later on when giving 'Shy a littletalkingto. Thankfully, it turned out nothing bad had happened to them, Celestia outright said that she would've done something quite nasty to Fluttershy in a fit of rage if it had.
Given the timing of the above, Mrs. Cake was probably among those at risk of losing her foals.
Fluttershy-turned-Nightmare Whisper is a Well-Intentioned Extremist who just wants to remove everypony's pain and suffering by absorbing it into herself, and she becomes powerful enough to easily take over much of Equestria in short order. However, since she was Fluttershy, she still has a twisted sense of kindness towards her "subjects" and has no real desire to harm the mane cast (except Applejack). Now think of the opponent the mane cast would have had to face if they hadn't talked down RainbowDash.
To be fair, it's implied a great deal of Nightmare Whisper's power came from the Elder Horn. She still went Nightmare all on her own, but she was also being powered up by an outside source. Not to say the same couldn't have happened to Rainbow Dash and there's no doubt Nightmare!Rainbow Dash would've likely been far more dangerous regardless simply due to her personality and natural abilities.
On another note, the one thing all the ponies who went Nightmare had in common is they were wielders of the Elements Of Harmony. All it'd take for any of the mane cast to turn into a Nightmare is for them to break just right. Of course this is really unlikely, but still a scary thought.
Regarding the above note, this troper noticed a slight pattern that suggested a Nightmare is created when an Element bearer becomes convinced that her respective Element is worthless or pointless (i.e. Rainbow Dash equating Loyalty with betrayal and Fluttershy learning that Kindness is not natural), though they might have to have been influenced by Discord to some degree as well.
Also, it is suggested that the process might have been happening to Twilight after her memory spell backfired during the battle against Nightmare Whisper. At least she was reverting back to her gray, broken state and was starting to turn pitch black, like Fluttershy did when she became a Nightmare. Thankfully, Trixie (and Twilight's own memories) were able to reverse the effect; I, for one, would not want to see NightmareSparkle.
At first I thought that Nightmare Granfalloon was just another impossibility alternate world far from main canon. Until one line from the story hit me. "All she knew was that she had worked up the nerve to finally confess her sin to the others today, and there was an EXPLOSION from Sugar Cube Corner or something." The indication being that Pinkie would have gone nightmare if her Battle in the Center of the Mind had failed! If she hadn't made up with Pinkamena, she would have gone nightmare, and lead to the destruction of the cast!
Nightmare Granfalloon's line (quoted below) indicates that Pinkie Pie's "Pinkie" personality was strong enough to destroy all of her other personalities by herself! Angry Pie seemed to have no idea what she almost unleashed, and is really lucky that Pinkie listened to Pinkamena and decided to accept/absorb the rest of her personalities instead of doing away with them.
Nightmare Granfalloon: Anger is dead-dead-dead! Pinkamena is dead-dead-dead! Bad foalhood memories are dead-dead-dead! Now there's only happy thoughts!
What's even worse? Luna says Nightmares are created when one part of them consumes every other part and Word of God confirms that the Nightmare can be different depending on what part of them that is. If Angry Pie had won, she'd have done just that. If the fun loving, Fun Personified "Pinkie" personality destroying the others created thisGranfalloon, just imagine what would've happened if the Ax-Crazy, murderous, Sociopathic Angry Pie had been the part that had consumed Pinkie Pie and gone Nightmare!
The Bad Future is full of this. The sweet old white mare with the musical cutie mark who took care of Rarigreed? It was Sweetie Belle. And the two potted plants that Twilight has an unnatural obsession with keeping safe? They were her parents.
The last we hear of Pandemonium is her alone, with a psychotic and newly near omnipotent Discord who just showed how little his family means to him.
Fortunately, it seems she's still alive and well.
In "Different From Everypony Else", Celestia mentions that if an Alicorn is truly given annihilation, that the very concept of an idea would not exist for ponies. If that's true, THEN WHAT IN ALL OF PONY HELL HAPPENED TO THE CONCEPTS OF CELESTIA'S FAMILY AFTER RAGNAROK? Obviously, the Alicorns can still remember them, and apply some of their idea, but were the Alicorns truly erased in the battle of Alicorns and Draconequi, and what happened to their concepts if this was the case?
It seems Celestia made some kind of distinction between death and annihilation when it comes to Alicorns. She made it clear something more permanent had happened to Cupid than had happened to the other Alicorns, Draconequi, and even Galaxia. She said he was truly no more, emphasizing something different had happened.
The fate of those Too Dumb to Live 'assassins', whom Celestia banished to separate deserted islands, is a lot less humorous than she puts it. Most likely they eventually Went Mad From The Isolation, followed shortly by Dying Alone. Apparently, they were the lucky ones, what happened to the smarter ones goes unmentioned.
Given that they WERE trying to murder her, it's hard to feel very much pity for them. And it seems unlike Celly to torture somepony.
That actually makes it more of a Fridge Horror, as it was only an attempt…Given the deconstructive nature of the series, it's very inappropriate to typecast anyone as a Big Good. However, later in the Wedding Arc, Celestia reveals that she used to visit the assassins after their exile, and they eventually turned the island into a resort, with their descendants still running it. It's also explained that she did this to protect them from their bosses who would have likely killed them.
What Morning Star did to Discord, who only mentions a few tidbits of that time to Diamond Tiara.
Speaking of Morning Star, here's a thought — outside of Celestia, Luna, Galaxia, Discord and possibly Pandora, it's never confirmed one way or the other who survived the Alicorn/Draconnequi war. So it's entirely possible that this sick bastard, who taught Discord everything he knows, is still out there.
I seem to recall Word of God mentioning that Morning Star was killed by the other Alicorns. So at least they're rid of him, anyway.
Pride and temptation still exist, as they are necessary to distinguish maturity from immaturity. Life without Morning Star would be blissful out of ignorance, such is Whisper's paradise.
Remember, dead is different from being erased from existence. I assume as long as there are fallen heroes and pride, Morning Star lives, but perhaps is not a direct threat to others.
Whether his body is dead or alive, Morning Star MUST still be pretty active IN HELL, right? After all, he IS The Devil, himself, is he not?
In the Harmony Queens/Nightmare Polyphony timeline, the first excerpt states that there are no more Alicorns/Concepts to fight, yet the second excerpt shows a battle with the last free Alicorn, Cadence's Nightmare. This implies that the first excerpt occurs AFTER the second one, meaning that the Mane Six really have crushed all resistance on the planet…
Alternatively, it could be a simple matter of author Retcon, as that chapter was written BEFORE a Canterlot Wedding was released.
In the Epilogue timeline, Changelings and Tiamat's empire are supposedly free from Discord's control, but given the deal between Traitor Dash and Discord, it is within Discord's ability to hunt down and erase every last one of them. He just doesn't need nor want to do that, but he will if his own life is on the line.
According to Word of God, the Valeyard claiming to keep killing the Master until he regenerated into his inner good (like the Valeyard is the embodiment of the Doctor's evil) was just an excuse to keep killing him again and again and again, and he would've KEPT going even if he got a good regeneration. Considering Cadence was still alive at the time, just how many times has the Valeyard killed him over the last five hundred years or so?
What this fails to take into account however, is that The Emperor of Man is not only a Physical God, but also a Magnificent Bastard par excellence. On top of that, he is fully aware of what his Empire has become and his Throne Room is kept separate from the eyes of the unworthy (IE, practically everyone). The Emperor would know not to reveal himself immediately, he would have the power to heal himself permanently and he would be intelligent enough to work covertly behind the scenes to get the empire on the right path. On a greater scale, it's been implied that the entire REASON the 40K Galaxy is so horrible is because the Chaos Gods are pouring so much negative energy into the minds of every living thing. Which in turn feeds back into them, creating a vicious cycle. However, this version of the 40K Galaxy is part of the PO Vverse, where there are legitimate Gods of Hope, Justice, Peace, Love and Kindness that are even stronger than the four Chaos Gods. Heck, even the Draconequi are pretty decent people. So the power of Tzeentch, Khorne, Slaneesh and Nurgle would be SEVERELY limited, which would allow for plenty of genuinely good people in the 40K Galaxy. So while the Imperium of Man may be composed of Knight Templars and Well Intentioned Extremists, they WOULD NOT be the psychotic Complete Monsters they are in Canon. Meaning that the Empire, Eldar, Tau and possibly even Chaos all becoming good would actually be completely plausible. Basically, by sheer virtue of being part of the POV!verse, whose highest powers are Good entities, This version of the 40K Galaxy is UNABLE to be fully Grimdark. It can only be Neutral Dark at worst and might even be NOBLE Dark.
It should also be noted that the scene in question was vague enough for many comments thinking it was Davros, that the author admitted very little knowledge of Warhammer, and that a later scene that confirmed it as being the Emperor was written in response to this very item of fridge horror: And then deleted because, amongst a number of reasons, the scene intended to offset fridge horror actually caused further fridge horror when one considered the ramifications on the 40k universe. There's a reason 40k is the trope namer for Grimdark - Every single action that could be called 'good' either happens alongside, or causes, a hundred new horrors. In relation to the fridge logic upon the fridge horror above, though, one could also interpret that if the pantheon were to have influence on a version of the 40k universe within the POV multiverse, that they would have many horrors in the past upon which to cause a point of divergence note If they were to predate or be contemporaries of the Old Ones, the creation of the warp as we know it might very well be out the window for example, as some backgrounds indicate the warp became so screwed up thanks to the war between the Old Ones and C'Tan - a war the Pantheon could prevent or at least mitigate that could very well prevent it being even remotely like 40k in the first place. Perhaps the POV Multiverse version of the 40k universe would more resemble BrightHammer?
Given how it's her biological family, and not any of her adopted foals that revisit Angry Pie from the afterlife, and how Discord outright says he couldn't make them immortal or keep them from passing away, but how he can promise to bring them back to Dark World, it appears that all of her adopted foals are actually damned to Hell. Their souls are likely claimed by Havoc, but Discord must have thought he could convince his father to release them. Probably as some sort of dowry.
Not all. Morning Light's spirit lingered behind to watch over her and stated she'd realized she was wrong, ultimately repenting and passing on. So at least one of them is in Pony Heaven. Given The Father of All Alicorns is a forgiving type, it's doubtful ALL of them are in Hell, and Discord had no problem resurrecting that innocent pony in 'Origins'. As for why they didn't come to visit Angry Pie, it'd be a storybreaker if they did because Angry Pie would've listened to them.
"Beating Up Discord" shows a brief glimpse of her and her foals in Pony Heaven. While Morning Light and Bomb Pie are the only ones mentioned by name, there are at least some of her foals there with her.
Shady's spirit clearly loving her child but still saying that he needed Nightmare Eclipse and might still need her also highlights how deep he had fallen. Even his own mother didn't see any other way to reform him then him to be chained to his daughter in this endless circle of misery.
Since Destruction was never actually erased, and was shown to be able to regenerate from nothing, he's almost certainly still alive... and conscious.
Although, Rancor mentioned that she didn't seem to hear anything coming from Discord when dealing with Nightmare Paradox, so make of that what you will.
General-Admiral Makarov has an extremely overly complex Cutie Mark (Illustration can be found here). At first, this seems to be just because he's a Parody Sue (Word of God states it was meant to be the kind of Cutie Mark an immature writer would give their OC)...then you remember the fact he's a an existence vampire who steals pony's existences. Each component of his Cutie Mark is probably from a different pony he's eaten.
Discord's punishment by his family is 'be brutally killed several billion times'. That's the Draconequi punishment for a monster of Discord's level. So what did Morning Star do that was so horrible that the Alicorn punishment was 'be imprisoned in Hell for eternity'?
It was revealed in the Loose Canon story Mistakes Of The Goddess of Music revealed that Morning Star threw Pandora's Box (of Dark Magic) to the world of G1 in a vain attempt at Engineered Heroics, effectively giving rise to Tirek's reign of terror with consequences that lasted even in present day. Not only that, he became obsessed with the idea that all of existence must follow his guidelines and even attempted to seize control of the role of creating the universe from his family.
The reveal that Shining is the nail that created the Light World carries this when you remember he's spent the majority of his story trying not to be retgoned by Makarov or the Wolf. If either of them had ever succeeded, the Light World would've become the Dark World!
The Interviewers's declaration that they'd never let Discord get his claws on Shining Armor. Sure it sounds noble and all, but then you remember that Discord was able to block their influence on Diamond Tiara, keeping them from helping her as he manipulated her into his return. If Discord really wanted to, the interviewers would have to leave Shining to his fate.
Though Diamond had a special link to Discord due to being his blood relative, so it's possible THAT was why he was able to do that.
Shining's musings on whether he made things worse for Sunset and Ranger when they died takes on a darker dimension when you remember that Shining is the nail between not only the Makarov timeline, but the Dark World timeline as well. If Shining never existed, those 2 would've been forced to live through Discord's 1000 year reign, which could be considered A Fate Worse Than Death depending on what he had planned for them.
Loneliness, during her attempted Breaking Lecture to Twilight, mentions things Trixie was comatose for. This means one thing: while Trixie was comatose, Loneliness was watching through her eyes the entire time!
It's established most avatars made by the Alicorns had some semblance of individuality unless the Alicorn is unskilled (Celestia) or inexperienced (Cadence). We don't know Aphrodite has individuality or just a meat puppet of Venus. If it's the former, then it becomes horrifying that Venus turned her into a berserker to attack the faux princesses. Venus feels guilt over the event regardless.
Rancor asks what Fluttercruel would do if something happened to Discord, Cruelty responds it's impossible and even if it was she wouldn't let it happen. Rancor simply responds 'so you do care about him', and doesn't offer her any emotional propping up for what is inevitably going to happen.
After being sealed away, Grogar breaks out of his can every 500 years. He reappeared around the 500th year of Dark World and was eventually defeated by Discord, the Discorded Mane Six, and Angry Pie's adopted son Little Hex. In the side story "The Valeyard: Lost Souls", the Valeyard is tasked with helping Pinkie Pie save Little Hex from Pony Hell. Which is great, except if Discord was defeated after 1,000 years, that means Little Hex was in Pony Hell for about 500 years.
Back when Chrysalis was just a lowly changeling deviant, Queen Cocoon tried to punish her for insubordination by making her fight Wolf Spider, a massive, hulking, brain-damaged beast of a changeling. His condition was the result of a failed experiment by the changeling hive's bioengineers; Shield Bug, who was in charge of keeping the swarm's babies healthy, begged Cocoon to put him out of his misery. Depending on how old Shield Bug is, it's possible that she looked after Wolf Spider when he was a baby, and she had to see that happen to one of her charges.
In the Dark World timeline, during her adventure to reach the Queen of Endless Winter's chamber, Minty Pie had to get past her deepest desires in the Crystal Mirrors. One of them was probably seeing her family alive and together again.
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