Headscratchers / My Little Pony: The Movie (2017)

Movie Vs. Prequel

• I am wondering about the consistency of the Expanded Universe connected to the movie. In the first issue of the prequel comic Storm King says he doesn't bother running the countries he conquered yet he says later in the same issue he wants to rule the entire world. Then in the final issue there are talks of him expanding his empire. Also in Tempest's story book, Tempest is shown as a young filly and it is mentioned that Cadence is running the Crystal Empire. Since it would not be that much time before Twilight is crowned, either Tempest should be a lot younger now, or the start of the book should take place years before even the start of the show.
  • The Storm King is a pirate with delusions of grandeur. When he says 'Empire', he really means an ever expanding area that he's plundered and pays tribute to him, not an area that he actually bothers to rule.
    • I do believe he actually does intend to rule the world, but it wasn't him that said he was expanding his empire—it was background patrons in the fourth issue, so would they say that if he was just leaving the kingdoms alone after pilfering them. Will the events of the comic actually be retconned away?
  • Plus material including the official says Capper was an aristocrat yet in the prequel comic he was always an urchin and conman. Was there different versions of the script or were the writers of the prequel comic using a previous draft?
    • Capper is a liar, maybe that previous part was just one of his lies.
• Another thing is that in supplementary books, Tempest and Grubber have a Villainous Friendship (Or at least the closest to such due to Tempest's anti-friendship philosophy) because Grubber found what many could not, greatness in her broken horn powers. Why does the movie completely forget about this detail and make him a tagalong she's not really fond of (She even electrocutes him at one point.)?
  • She electrocuted him because he failed to capture the final princess, thereby jeopardizing her chance of getting her horn restored. Throughout the movie, getting her horn back is her primary focus and everything else is a back-burner thought. (Plus, at one point Grubber goes on about how unsightly the broken horn is, which probably didn't do wonders for her feelings about him.)
• It seems rather odd in the movie that Tempest's friends are shown abandoning her the moment she loses her horn, where as the comic depicts them as more patient and sympathetic to her plight.
  • It's stated on the Fridge Page that the comic is written in third person, and we're shown that particular moment from Tempest's perspective. So possibly, what we saw in the movie was a Self-Serving Memory of Tempest's, while what we're shown in the comic is what actually happened.
  • The beginning of the book should take place years before the start of the show. The book also either forgets that doctors and parents/legal guardians exist (Tempest explicitly knows nothing about her prognosis and no adult in her life is ever mentioned) or deliberately omits them to avoid depicting the kind of parenting that would drive a child to not only run away but leave the country to escape the shame of being disfigured.

Why did they abandon Twilight?

• After the whole Seaquestria incident, Twilight's friends, except Spike, abandon her in disgust. While Twilight messed up badly, and had a meltdown afterwards these things are nothing new. Her friends always stood by her before because they new she was under a great deal of stress and not thinking clearly. So rest of the Mane Six abandoning her seems a bit odd, especially with ponies like Rainbow Dash (loyalty), Fluttershy (kindness) and Rarity (generosity). Not to mention leaving Twilight alone and defenseless. Bit out-of-character isn't it?
  • Out-of-character how? Conflict Balls and Aesop Amnesia like this is very common in the show. They're not thinking about the risks of such is how they've been characterized up to this point which Twilight calls them out for.
  • While this scene is very similar to what happened in "A Canterlot Wedding". What's better is that Spike is staying by her side. In fact, after cooling down from the falling out, the Mane 5 decide they should go back and talk to Twilight, and when they find out that she'd been kidnapped they immediately spring to her rescue.
  • And if you take Rainbow Dash's loyalty, Fluttershy's kindness, and Rarity's generosity all into account, it's Twilight who was being disloyal, cruel and selfish. Not them. Twilight tricked her friends into distracting the seaponies so she could steal their pearl - and then insulted them horribly when they confronted her. Rainbow's loyalty was to the other four friends that Twilight tricked and insulted, as was with Fluttershy and Rarity. And you could also interpret it as them leaving her alone before any of them say anything else they regret later.
  • They're not abandoning her, they're just getting some space since they're all upset and need to cool down before they try and talk things through. Twilight crossed a line with what she said and trying to stay together would have just made things worse. If it wasn't for Twilight getting ponynapped by Tempest they likely would have gone back to talk to her soon.

The Plot Convenient Conduit

• Why is there a magical power conduit thingy for the staff to fit into in the middle of the Princess' throne room?
  • It might be used in case of emergency. Like if Celestia needs to talk to Cadance and doesn't have any time to fly over to the Crystal Empire or send a note, she could summon that and call her then.
  • Maybe it wasn't there originally but it was built by the Storm Guards while Tempest was searching for Twilight. The staff seems to drain the magic just fine out of Twilight when the Storm King is holding it - so maybe the conduit was put into the floor just as a ceremonial thing. Note that in the early scenes, that part of the floor is covered by a rug. We don't see the conduit in the floor until after Tempest has returned to Canterlot.
  • Actually, in the overhead shot of the throne room when Twilight walks in, you can actually see the conduit on the floor. It's just not that obvious with the shot being around 1-2 seconds long and the carpet was just covering up the middle part of it (the left and right areas are still quite visible). So the above guess is Jossed. We will never know the actual purpose of that thing.
  • Maybe it was created as a potential solution to the Nightmare Moon problem? Just in case the Elements of Harmony weren't enough to defeat her, maybe using the staff to drain her magic might work instead?
  • Or maybe it was created much more recently as a response to the Tirek problem. When the princesses gave Twilight their magic, it overloaded her and she had trouble controlling it at first (and it was that which tipped off Tirek where she was). So maybe the conduit was there as a fail safe if the princesses needed to pool their magic into something else that could be used a little easier.

Journey Back to Equestria

• How did the ReMane Five, Spike, Capper, Skystar and the pirates get off Mount Aris without a working ship?
  • Skystar, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and the pirates can all fly. Presumably they carried Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, Spike and Capper between them. Then once they were on land, they got another vessel to help get them the rest of the way there.
  • The pirates can't fly, they don't have wings.
  • There was also the makeshift hot air balloon that they used to get to Mt. Aris in the first place. Spike could have given it lift while Skystar, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy steered it.
  • Rarity said that the balloon crashed at the bottom of the mountain.
  • They weren't at Mount Aris, they were on the Basalt Beach, which is near the mountain.

Dramatic Clouds

• Where did the storm clouds from the beginning come from? It was established the Storm King needed magic of the Princesses to fuel his staff and he wasn't even there when the invasion began.
  • They probably weren't real storm clouds, but smoke generators mounted on the airships.
  • Confirmed. Rainbow Dash outright says they aren't storm clouds (after Twilight asks her what's up when she's supposed to be keeping the sky clear).

No fixing Tempest's horn? Ok!

• So um, in the end, couldn't either the princesses' combined power or the staff (which Twilight seems to be in possession of now) have been used to fix Tempest's horn? Kinda feels like a dick move for them to have not actually done that when they knew how important it was to her. It even seemed like the whole character arc was leading up to them fixing it for her once they realized she redeemed herself.
  • Her arc wasn't about getting her horn repaired, but rather learning that she doesn't need her horn to be accepted by others. Twilight encouraging the fireworks show was proof of that. And that's assuming her horn could have been fixed in the first place. The Storm King could have been lying about being able to do that.
  • As there doesn't seem to be magic that can restore a pony's mane, a broken horn being unfixable isn't too much of a stretch.
    • In the series, there's a fair amount of evidence that healing magic in general is either very limited or nonexistent (otherwise, the plot of "Read it and Weep" probably wouldn't have happened).
  • The real headscratcher is how a unicorn filly with a broken horn gets so neglected. That's serious damage; you'd think her parents would have gone looking for solutions and Celestia might have bent a magical eye in that direction? Prevent her from feeling neglected and abandoned, and she might never have gone over to the Storm King in the first place.
    • We've seen a unicorn with a broken horn in the series before (in a hospital scene), so its a rare but not unheard of injury. Tempest likely could have gotten help dealing with her loss, but she was young and felt like her few friends were all she had in the world (presumably if she even had family they didn't care much about her). Then she ran away from Equestria and thus cut herself off from any help she could have gotten.
  • How about a prosthetic horn such as what is occasionally depicted in fan art of Tempest? If regenerative magic would be utterly impossible, then one would expect Equestria's medical community to at least be working on that. Though going back to Tempest's character arc, her backstory (focusing on her friends allegedly abandoning her) heavily implied that her obsession with getting fixed had more to do with being normal for the sake of being normal than doing anything magic-related with her life. If so, a prosthesis may not have been a satisfactory solution by her standards, even if it were functionally fit for a princess.
  • Here's some clear inconsistencies in medical knowledge: A Unicorn Horn grows normally with the passage of time and its length can be a rough visual gauge of their raw potential. Celestia and Luna have the longest horns among the ponies of Equestria because of their advanced age and unmatched magical prowess. But Cadance, being far younger than them, is right behind them as having the third longest horn and magical prowess. And Tempest Shadow's horn just simply stopped growing after it was broken. Oh, and lets not forget that Flurry Heart was born with a Horn length that is at least two to three times what you would find on a normal unicorn foal. So what's with the self-contradiction around Unicorn Horns and how are any of them possible despite the clear clashes of incompatibility? Tempest Shadow's horn stub should've at least kept growing to half of its expected length had it not been broken.
    • Maybe it's like human limbs as opposed to fingernails, they stop growing if cut off. And if magical potential defines horn growth, losing her horn, and thus said magic potential, would stop it from growing.
    • Yet her magic was powerful enough to destroy an Airship! And make an impressive fireworks spell.
    • Real horns (like those of goats or antelope) cannot usually grow back if the bone core of the horn is badly broken (its different if the often long keratin sheath is broken, that can regenerate just fine). If unicorn horns are anything like that then Tempest simply had the misfortune to have the bony core of her horn broken as well. That being said, there is no reason to think this hindered the development of her magic (Twilight outright says it's powerful), it just prevented her from controlling the magic for anything but destructive/shocking bursts. With all this in mind there is no contradiction that I can see, after all the remaining part of her horn (the base) did grow to match the adult size of her head, it simply couldn't regrow anything past where the bone was broken. Basically for a unicorn no horn means no magic, a broken horn means magic that can't do anything but explode/shock, but a broken horn does not negate the inherent power/potential of the unicorn (hence why Tempest is still very powerful with the magic she is able to use, even if said magic can only do a couple things).

What was the point again?

• What was the point of the stuff with the Hippogriffs/seaponies and their magic pearl? Even though the characters were making a HUGE deal about going there, they contributed almost nothing to the story except for being the reason for Twilight Sparkle's fallout with the rest of the Mane Six. Sure, Princess Skystar joins the group in saving Twilight, but she barely contributes ANYTHING at all to the rescue.
  • In-universe, Celestia clearly knew her friend Queen Novo and that she had an entire kingdom of hippogriffs that could be called on as allies. If they used the pearl, the ponies of Equestria could be turned into seahorses so that they'd be safe from the Storm King's army until they could come up with a plan of attack. Or else the armies themselves could be transformed, thus restricting their ability to only act under the sea. Out of universe, it puts the characters on a journey to find something. But along the way they realise they don't need a magical artefact when they've got The Power of Friendship.
  • And I think Celestia told Luna to seek out Queen Novo as a way of hiding herself. If she and Twilight turn themselves into seaponies, Tempest can't get their magic for the Storm King to use.
  • Narratively speaking, it's to stress the importance of The Power of Friendship. Twilight first looks for allies to help her fight the Storm King but in the course of her journey, lets the setbacks convince her that the Equestrian way doesn't work outside it. So she focuses on a MacGuffin, and it's that focus which leads to things getting even worse; it's like defeating Nightmare Moon, where she didn't necessarily need the Elements of Harmony, but she needed to make some friends. Had Twilight not tried to steal the pearl, she would have had more allies convinced to help them through The Power of Friendship. The hippogriffs might not have contributed to the final battle, but they were vital to the story from a thematic point of view; it's in Seaquestria that Twilight makes the choice to ignore what she should know about Equestrian diplomacy and friendship, and tries to play by different rules to her detriment.

Royal Guard Absence

• WHERE is Shining Armor and the Equestrian Royal Guards??? Sure they would've been beaten and subdued as usual for putting up a valiant but futile resistance but being absent and unable to oversee security for the Friendship Festival is inexcusable to the point that Celestia might as well disband the organization if they're actually that useless.
  • Shining was likely busy with security-related stuff (and, you know, Flurry) back at the Empire.
  • If Cadence is visiting Canterlot for the festival, presumably he's keeping things in order in the Crystal Empire.
  • Apparently, the Royal Guards do show up and fight in the "The Great Princess Caper" book adaptation. So it's probably The Law of Conservation of Detail, no reason to put them in if they're doomed to fail.

The Chaotic Disappearance of Discord

• Where is Discord in all this? He could easily defeat The Storm King and Tempest Shadow. They didn't even subject him to the The Worf Effect or Hand Wave him out. He's just not there with no explanation. I realize that having really powerful characters creates obstacles for plot since it raises the question why that character doesn't solve threats, but they didn't even give a reason for Discord to not be there.
  • There are a number of possible reasons. Discord would have had no way of knowing Canterlot had been attacked (he may have sensed the power transfer at the film's climax but by then it would have been too late), that is as far as we know the Mane 6 don't have a quick way of contacting him and he spends most of his time in another dimension. Plus it seems likely the obsidian orbs would have petrified him just as easily as anyone else (and he would have likely been too prideful to try to avoid the orb's gas until it was too late, Cadance indicated that once you start turning to stone magic can't stop it). The reason the Mane 6 didn't even try to reach him though was probably also because they were focused on Celestia's belief that the hippogriffs were the ones with the best solution.
  • They don't seem to have any way of contacting him. And Twilight heard from Celestia that the definite plan of action should be to find the hippogriffs, so that was their first plan. If the hippogriffs hadn't had anything, they might have tried to find him. But usually in the series, he just shows up when he wants, so waiting around for him to hopefully appear might not have seemed like a good idea.
  • This troper half-expected him to come in at the end as the Deus Ex Machina, so your question is not without cause. But the Storm King's face looks too much like that of Tirek, and it might have felt too much like a rerun of Twilight's Kingdom to have him about.
  • Out of universe, the movie was put into production around the time of Season 5. It's not until Season 7 that Fluttershy finally visits Discord - and notes she's never been to his home before. So that explains why they don't seek him out.
  • Discord very much plays by the Evil Versus Oblivion and Enemy Mine tropes, in that he only gets involved in the "events" when it affects him directly. He got involved in Princess Twilight Sparkle because the Mane Six summoned him, he got involved in Twilight's Kingdom because Celestia summoned him, and he got involved in To Where and Back Again because the Changelings kidnapped Fluttershy. It's rare for the Mane Six to summon Discord in "events", and it's rare for Discord to help in the "events" if he doesn't benefit from it in any way.

Where's Sunset?

• So all the ponies in Equestria were invited to the Friendship Festival...but neither Twilight nor Starlight considered inviting Sunset Shimmer to attend? It would've been a great opportunity for her to 1: Go back home for an extended visit. 2: Make more friends among her own kind, and 3: Make amends with Princess Celestia. I understand they wanted to try and keep EQG separate from FIM, but we could've at least gotten a background cameo of her at some point.
  • Who said Sunset wasn't invited. maybe they did and she declined for some reason.
  • Depending on how Equestria Girls matches up to the show's timeline, she could have been at Camp Everfree at the time or trapped in Juniper's mirror. Or dealing with some other threat that prevented her from visiting.
    • Sunset was trapped in Juniper's mirror for all of two minutes, and Starlight was in the human world the whole time that happened. And Starlight's clearly present at the festival when the Storm King's army invades.
  • Flash Sentry isn't in the movie either so...
  • As of the Forgotten Friendship special, Sunset has made amends with Celestia. The timeline is pretty vague but maybe it happened before the events of the movie - and perhaps Sunset was just too busy with schoolwork to travel for the festival.

What Could've Been Should've Been

• The decision to not have the Hippogriffs, or for that matter, anyone other than Capper, Skystar, and the pirates show up to help the Mane Six at the end because it would "take focus away from them". Uhh...they could've easily just had them just fight the Storm King's army in the background, and still kept the action involving the Storm King himself strictly with the Mane Six. Have the writers even heard of the Men of Sherwood trope? Of all the franchises that could use this trope, wouldn't a series where even the most obscure background character has an extensive fanon backstory be overqualified for it?
  • Why would the Hippogriffs show up to help? They were ticked off at Twilight for trying to steal their pearl, especially Queen Novo. Skystar helped the Mane Six without her mother's permission, which she wouldn't have given her anyway due to what Twilight did. As for the other ponies of Equestria not helping, did we even see any of the enslaved ponies in the background during the fight against the Storm Guards? They probably didn't know about the slavery so how could they free them? Also, the purpose of the fight was to hold the Storm King's Army off and rescue Twilight. Once they did, then they probably would've went back to free the others and take the kingdom back by helping defeat the Storm King. Nopony knew Tempest would do a Heel-Face Turn and Heroic Sacrifice (or that the Storm King would create a tornado) so the plan was altered once she did. If you would rather have the out of universe explanation, the writers don't always make the best decisions.
    • Even if Queen Novo was mad at Twilight, she's still good friends with Luna and Celestia. And permission or not, Skystar still ran off to help the Mane Six, and what kind of mother wouldn't want to keep their child safe? Either one would be a good and valid excuse for the Hippogriffs to show up and help save the day. Also, even if they didn't happen to see any ponies on the streets during the battle, they're in the middle of the freaking city! Cities, even ones that are under occupation, have citizens. So looking around for citizens to break out of imprisonment should be priority #2. Even if Capper and the pirates didn't think about that, the Mane Six could've still told them to try rescuing hostages while they were keeping the guards busy.
  • Novo was friends with Celestia and Luna? Then why didn't Novo refuse to help at first? Also, I never said Queen Novo shouldn't keep her child safe. In fact, she and the others did show up at the very end. The thing is that we don't know when exactly she found out Skystar was missing or how long it took to get to Canterlot.
  • Neither Twilight nor her friends mentioned that they were pupils of Celestia before Queen Novo brushed them off. It's possible she might have been more helpful had they done so, but they were too caught up with learning about the hippogriffs and the pearl to properly introduce themselves. Queen Novo probably thought they were just a bunch of desperate refugees begging her for help.
  • I got no other reason for the Hypogriffs. I think my answer to that part was fine. As for releasing the other ponies, they aren't imprisoned anymore so it's likely the pirates, Capper and Skystar DID do just that while the whole scene with the staff was taking place. Why they didn't do it earlier so that they could help I have no idea other than the out of universe reason and the characters not thinking it through.

• Apparently there were originally plans for the Mane 6 to be thrown in jail after the attempted pearl theft, and Fluttershy would have convinced passing fish to break them out. Considering Fluttershy is so underused and contributes almost nothing in the final product(she befriends a Storm Guard and that's about it), why was the one plan they had for her to participate scrapped?
  • While I agree that she could have used a moment like that, it would have affected the drama of the scene. It's much more effective to go from the pearl theft to the argument on the beach. That way the theft is still fresh in the characters' minds, giving them good reason to fly off the handle and say things they wouldn't otherwise. Thus Twilight is left alone and can get kidnapped by Tempest. If the Mane Six are thrown in jail, they're forced to be together even with the heightened tensions and it doesn't allow for that moment to unfold. Twilight yelling at her friends is key in realising the importance of friendship - and why she wants to befriend Tempest, to make up for her failings earlier.

Miraculous Survival

• How did Capper and pirates survive the explosion of their ship and the drop from the sky? The pirates are Bird People but they clearly can't fly on their own. Their appearance to the Mane 5 after Twilight's capture reeks of Unexplained Recovery and Deus ex Machina, not that the Mane 5 themselves are complaining.
  • As I understand it, Tempest never actually tried killing them - she just decided to blast Captain Celaeno's airship with magical fireworks to blow off some steam and punish the Pirates for harboring fugitives. Given that Tempest and her mooks can't fly, she probably hopped back on her own airship once Celaeno's began to lose altitude, and the crew managed an emergency landing.
    • Probably the case. It looks like Tempest was more aiming to scuttle the ship and put Caelano's crew out of commission, rather than actually blow up the ship. It's probable that she simply wrecked vital parts of the ship and forced it down, rather than destroying the entire thing.
  • But if Tempest did not intend to kill them and instead wreck their ship, why would she do so and why would she not lock them up in a dungeon or something afterwards? Keeping them alive and free without imprisoning them didn't do anything except make them defy the Storm King even more and help the Mane Six. Besides, the ship crashing would've still killed them even if it wasn't her intent.
    • Tempest' main concern was getting Twilight back to Canterlot in time for Storm King's arrival. She wasn't going to waste time locking up and transporting a group of traitors which she may not have even brought enough cages for when she could deliver her promised punishment on them in seconds. As far as she was concerned they were inconsequential as threats, and their defiance (which as far as she saw was quelled to cowering when they were confronted) had amounted to nothing more than delays. And as for the ship crashing being a death sentence, that would depend heavily on how quickly it crashed and where it crashed. Neither of these we see, but what little we see is Tempest wrecking the outside of the ship, over water, suggesting it could well have lost altitude fairly slowly and landed in the water where the pirates and Capper were able to swim to shore. One of the pirates even says she "sank" their ship (though he could have been using a metaphor). As for why she wouldn't want to kill them, as brutal as she is Tempest isn't depicted as outright murderous (the closest she comes is when she petrified Luna in mid-air, but that was either a miscalculation or something she did because she knew Twilight would stop her from shattering), and is visibly disturbed by how recklessly Storm King throws his power around even before she turns against him.
    • I see your points except the part where she's not murderous. She did kill the Storm King (granted he deserved it but still.)
    • You could argue that that wasn't her intention; she was just aiming to take the bullet for the Mane 6 and petrify him in retaliation. Him falling off and shattering was a side effect she might not have considered, and by the time she saw it happening, she was already mostly petrified and couldn't stop it.

Fizzlepop vs. Ursa Minor

• How did the Ursa Minor break Tempest's horn really? Twilight did an epic fight with Tirek and she get's out of it unscathed. Celestia lost a Beam-O-War to Chrysalis and though it defeats her, her horn is still in one piece. Plus, how did this one get a good aim at the horn when the one on Boast Busters didn't (Assuming, they weren't the same one). It makes it look like the Storm King manipulated the events just to use her for his plans, which what we've seen in the Prequel Comics and movie, is extremely unlikely.
  • They aren't really at all the same thing. Tempest was just a filly unicorn, not a thousand plus year old alicorn who has demonstrated Made of Iron abilities (most tellingly how she was only briefly stunned by Nightmare's magic blasts that were tearing her castle apart like it was made of paper), let alone the god-like being Twilight seemed to become when she had the combined magic of four alicorns (plus she protected herself with shields from major impacts). In short, a adult unicorn's horn is probably harder to break than a filly's, and a alicorn's horn is likely harder still. Further, Ursa Minor/Major are regarded as some of the most powerful and dangerous animals in Equestria, and for all we know the one in Boast Bursters could have broken Twilight's horn if it got the opportunity. As for why the one Tempest met was able to, it was because they were in the confines of a cave and rather than run or dodge she tried to stand and fight it, giving it the opportunity to hit her. I really don't see how the events could be linked to Storm King at all. Tempest getting her horn broken was mostly bad luck and poor decision making (the latter being the decision to go into the cave and then deciding not to run when the bear appeared).
  • She was charging up her horn when the bear slashed. It might have exploded from being damaged while charged rather than from the Ursa alone.
  • According to the prequel novel, she was sent flying by the swipe and broke her horn on the cave wall.

Mr. The Storm King

• Why is the Storm King's real name not revealed? Even if it's not revealed in the movie, there should've been a manual of some sort to tell us. For example in Star Wars, Palpatine/Darth Sidious was only known as the emperor in the original trilogy yet his name was in the Prequel Trilogy and Supplementary Material. Why hasn't anyone come up with one? The same fandom who would find names for many background ponies can't find one for the movie's Big Bad? While onto this, what would his empire/army be called?
  • Maybe his title and name is actually Mr. The Storm King? In any case, his real name is immaterial to the plot. Palpatine's name was important because he wasn't The Emperor during the prequels. Tempest Shadow's real name is important because it's a lighthearted holdover from her origins. The Storm King is just the Storm King.
  • Judging by what the pirates call them when they see the ship, his army is called the "Storm Guard."
    • I thought Storm Guards was the name of the mooks, not the army. Anyway, what are they actually guarding. You might say the Storm King, but I never saw him being protected by a pair of them. They seem more to be mooks rather than guards.

Grubber's Purpose

• Why is Grubber part of the Storm King's army? The Prequel Comics tell us how he went from janitor to Strife's replacement but not how he even got allowed into the army despite his status as the Comic Relief of the villain's side and not a fighter. Is he a Storm King fan boy, a former Kludgetown slave, or some random stowaway who the Storm King for some reason let him stay?
  • He was probably in it for the food, because he loves to eat.
  • I doubt that Grubber serves in the Storm King's army in any military role. He's more of an errand boy, willing enough to wear the merch and suck up to the Storm King and Tempest that no one minds his bumbling that much.
  • I seem to recall that he was promoted to being second banana because the Storm King didn't think Grubber could/would betray him like Strife did.
  • Which raises even more questions. He couldn't promote one of his own troops instead? First off, Grubber has no fighting skills nor is he commander material. Plus the Storm Guards aren't just the Storm King's loyal mooks. They are his own species. They are even less likely to turn on their leader and are competent enough for the job, yet Grubber is the one he picked to replace Strife?

Quit goofing around and take your enemy seriously

• So after the Storm King takes the princesses magic including Twilight's, why then does he blast Twilight out of the cage that was holding her? Yes, her magic is stolen at that point, but if the Storm King just left her in the cage, Twilight wouldn't have saved Tempest from being sucked in the tornado after his You Have Outlived Your Uselfulness on her and she wouldn't have killed him. Come to think of it, why didn't the Storm King use those stolen powers on Twilight (Like how Palpatine tortured Luke with lightening in Return of the Jedi) instead of playing around with the sun and moon? Or better yet, he could've used the Obsidian Orb that he tried throwing at the Mane Six at the end on Twilight (and possibly even Tempest) and problem solved.
  • He blasted Twilight first because he was testing what he could do with the staff, he didn't even seem sure what would happen and just wanted a live expendable target (and after the blast destroys the cage and the wall he notes that the magic is "first rate" and decides to see what else he can do with it). He likewise sees Twilight as no threat, and thus ignores her once he realizes he can move the sun and moon and gets absorbed into doing that. As for the orb, he was probably saving it for an emergency when he had no other options.
  • And at that point, Twilight is defenceless. She has no magic, and she's completely demoralized. If she tried to fight back, she'd be no match for the staff. It's not until her friends show up that she fights back. And then if he tried to use the Obsidian Orb on her, he'd still have the others to deal with. He didn't pull out the last orb until he lost the staff and the ponies were all together in one position where he could hopefully petrify them all at once.

Celestia and the Storm King

• Two questions: 1) How did Celestia not know about the Storm King? She surely would had heard about him rampaging the globe during meetings regarding foreign affairs and discussions with other world leaders off-screen. Surely she can't be this ignorant and/or naïve, can she? Just seeing the Storm King's banner unfurl should had set off the alarm bells in her head instead of making her and the other Princesses be the welcome committee. Is this ignorance born from High Fantasy at work? 2) How did Tempest's ship and the Storm King's advance fleet waltz it's way across Equestria straight into Canterlot which is in the middle of the country without alerting anypony? It definitely never bothered using camouflage and Twilight herself ordered clear skies from the Wonderbolts and other pegasi for the festival, meaning that her ships would have stuck out like a sore thumb while being visible from the edge of the city with normal vision. Why else do you think Canterlot was built on the side of a mountain?
  • One thing that's been made pretty clear throughout the series is that Equestria has VERY little communication with the outside world (and vice versa, Storm King didn't even seem aware that the sisters moved the sun and moon until he found out he could do it), and even certain parts of Equestria itself have little communication with other parts. Likewise there is no sign that they protect or monitor their borders in any meaningful way. Why we don't know, perhaps simple complacency given how most of the major threats were defeated or sealed away a thousand years ago. Even in this movie we see this lack of communication in that Celestia seemed unaware that the hippogriffs had gone into hiding some time ago.
    • Well to be fair to Celestia for being ignorant about the hippogriffs, it could be that during the invasion of Mount Aris, the Storm King besieged the mountain from all sides effectively cutting it off from the rest of the world. Any attempts to get a message to Equestria would just be give him information about the place complete with a captured hippogriff messenger to add to his slave collection. It's safe to say that Queen Novo realized that there is no hope for outside help and had everyone to go into hiding while hoping that no one else will seek their help. Guess how that turned out...
  • 1) Since the movie is set between Seasons 7 and 8, the ponies had just finished dealing with the Pillars of Equestria and the Pony of Shadows. So the return of Star Swirl and the rest of the pillars had everyone distracted. Maybe there were reports of the Storm King's forces spreading but they were overlooked because of the more immediate problem. And in the show, we see lots of places that have no connection to Equestria like Griffinstone or Yak Yakistan. Celestia is in the process of establishing communications with other nations - but as we see in "A Royal Problem" she's so busy running her own kingdom that she has very little time for anything else. It's why Twilight and her friends get sent out after all. 2) The Friendship Festival is quite a big event and there are hundreds or maybe even thousands of ponies attending. People have been travelling from all over Equestria to get there. So the sight of an airship travelling to Canterlot wouldn't be that unusual. We've seen in the parent show that some ponies do travel by balloon or airship, so we can assume plenty of festival goers are travelling to Canterlot by air. Maybe the odd pegasus thought it looked suspicious, tried to investigate and was dealt with by Tempest?

The Storm King's Whereabouts

• Another thing about the Storm King, is that he sends Tempest, Grubber, and most of his forces to invade Canterlot in advance while he himself is inexplicably absent in the invasion. Instead he was somewhere we never find out, calls Tempest via video chat spell, and is planning to arrive three days later (assuming the whole adventure from then to the climax took place that long). Wouldn't it make more sense if he came along with the rest of the invasion and take control of the Canterlot Castle and oversee the conquest personally while Tempest went to hunt down the Mane Six? That way, he would get more screen time and no one would complain about his lack of development.
  • Perhaps, but in the movie itself he doesn't know that Tempest even left Canterlot or that Twilight got away as Tempest didn't tell him. As far as he knew she had everything under control.
    • It's true that he didn't know about the hunt for the Mane Six. I mean, he's not much of a Chessmaster and is more of the manipulative type (As seen with Tempest). The question I was trying to ask is where or what was he doing that he had to send an advance force. In the Prequel Comics, the Storm King personally leads the invasion of Abyssinia. (I know Tempest wasn't on his side at that point, but he does have Obsidian Orbs and an army with Anti Magic weapons. Plus he would've made his way to Equestria with or without her). So my headscratcher still stands.
  • "In chess the pawns go first". Tempest and Grubber were invading Canterlot during a festival where all four princesses would be attending. With four Alicorn princesses to subdue, the plan could have gone wrong. If it goes right, great, and he can move in and take control of the magic. If it goes wrong then he can keep his distance, regroup and try again. Something he can't do if he goes into Canterlot guns blazing and risking being trounced by the princesses.
    • I never thought of that. Shows how much I know about chess.

Mane Event

• So the mane event (That was a pun in the beginning of the movie) of the Friendship Festival is Sia OC Songbird Serenade. Why not someone familiar like Rara?
  • It works better for the story for Twilight to be worried sick about making everything perfect for someone famous and unknown to her; Rara already knows Twilight, and it would undercut the moment for Applejack to point out that Twilight already helped Rara so she shouldn't worry about first impressions. This also helps avoid continuity lockout, which the film is already trying hard to do. In universe, its possible that Rara's popularity faded a bit when she shifted her image or she might have declined for any number of reasons.
  • And when Rara visited, her concert was in Ponyville. The Friendship Festival is in Canterlot, with ponies coming from all across Equestria. So there wouldn't be that much familiarity with Rara.

Sun & Moon

• So they take down the two beings who are known to control the rotation of the sun and the moon. Was there any plan to address this or is it just lazy writing?
  • What do you mean? They plainly did address it as Storm King showed that he now had the power to take over the role of moving the sun and moon. How well/responsibly he'd do it is another question of course.
  • And note that you never see night falling during the movie. That's because Celestia and Luna are petrified, so no one can lower the sun or raise the moon.

Explaining Plot Inconsistencies

Other than to get the plot to work, is there an in-universe explanation for the following things?

• 1. Twilight did not teleport at any point in the movie, even before she was captured.
  • Twilight seems reluctant to use her magic after the Storm King's minions show their armour repels it. Any time she could have transported she also had her friends with her, meaning she'd have to teleport them as well, or else leave them. She's never demonstrated that she can use her magic to transport them all at once - and if she can, it's not something she can do in a crisis. Twilight's whole confidence was dented by the sudden invasion of Canterlot and them being forced out of their home.
  • In Dragon Quest, Twilight just barely manages to teleport more than two people - herself, Spike, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash. She actually fails the first time she tries it because she's also running as fast as she can from dragons in pursuit. She also only teleports them a short distance away. During the invasion, she would have to transport twice as many people considerably further, under much more chaotic circumstances for that to be effective.
• 2. Even the Pegasi (who can FLY away from the Storm King's army) got captured and enslaved.
  • Maybe some Pegasi did flee in time. We just don't see them because our focus is with the Mane Six. And don't forget that the Storm King's army came in on an airship, so there might have been soldiers who stayed on board and got the Pegasi as they were trying to escape.
• 3. Tempest somehow found out that the Mane Six went to Kludgetown (let alone to find Queen Novo).
  • Tempest found a map with the Hippogriff's homeland marked and figured it out.
  • Klugetown clearly isn't that far from Canterlot if the Mane Six walked there in the space of about a day or so. And Tempest is travelling on an airship, meaning she has time to search other places first. So she could have gone to other towns and locations before she happened upon them at Klugetown. Or she had other minions searching the other places, and she just happened to get lucky that the place she searched was where they actually were. As for knowing they were trying to find Queen Novo, during "Time To Be Awesome" Twilight is seen charting their journey on the map. Tempest finds the map with the route to the mountain marked - a scene that is pretty un-subtle and prompts Capper to try and lie his way out of deceiving her. Not sure how you missed that part.
• 4. Starlight and Trixie only made a cameo (not counting the credits). They should've led some resistance and have saved Equestria without magic once before.
  • The Storm King's forces have armor that blocks magic. Twilight only used one blast on one shield - that was easily deflected. Starlight probably tried to fight back and by the time she realised her magic was useless, she was surrounded and captured. Trixie might have escaped and planned to return to find resistance (it's just that the Mane Five got there first), or else she too was ambushed and captured before she could do anything. Don't forget how quickly the invasion happens - the princesses are petrified in the space of about five minutes, and everything is still chaos. In the Season 6 finale, Trixie and Starlight had the benefit of time to come up with a plan.
• 5. Twilight was somehow able to fly down after surviving the tornado, with her magic having been absorbed into the staff. And don't tell me her flight wasn't taken. Twilight's Kingdom proved it can be taken.
  • Twilight is holding the staff when she returns from the tornado. Therefore she's able to use her flight via the magic in the staff. She just has more practice at dealing with the concentrated magic of four alicorns than the Storm King does. Twilight was also able to use her telekinesis on Tempest through the staff before it was returned.
  • And also notice that she had to rely on her friends helping her to get to the staff in the first place, because she couldn't fly up there. So her flight was taken.
• 6. Twilight's cutie mark is still shown.
  • The magic drain didn't work the same way Tirek's did.
  • Even if it did, maybe Tirek drained more than the staff did. The ponies drained of their magic by him also seemed significantly weaker too, whereas in the movie Twilight doesn't seem as affected. So perhaps Tirek was strong enough to drain the cutie marks too.
• 7. Applejack and Fluttershy not doing much.
  • What more could they have done?
  • Simply because the writers didn't have the time to introduce two more new characters for Applejack and Fluttershy to befriend. But the two of them have never been ones to take the lead or be flashy with what they do. Appeljack spends the journey making sure everyone is okay, doing the Boring, but Practical things and Fluttershy is seen making lots of friends in Seaquestria. So they are doing stuff, just not anything that puts them in the limelight.
  • Is that the real reason or is it because Andrea Libman and Ashleigh Ball are so busy voicing Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash respectively that they have less time with the other two?
  • I can't speak for Andrea and Ashleigh but I've been to a convention with Tara Strong and she's been asked to do several of her characters on command. She easily switched from Twilight to Bubbles to Raven without missing a beat. In an interview with Andrea she was able to go into Pinkie and Fluttershy easily, so I doubt it's that. Rainbow and Pinkie just happen to be the more exciting characters - Rainbow being a big show off and Pinkie being comic relief - so them being involved in the plot is just more natural.
• 8. There are also complaints about Fluttershy being like her Season 1-4 self despite the movie taking place between seasons 7 and 8.
  • Speaking as someone with anxiety, it can be a different story with confidence when you're at home in a familiar environment than outside your comfort zone. Fluttershy has never been outside Equestria, and she's in the middle of a very intense and frightening situation. So it does make sense that she'd be a little more timid than usual. But notice that by the time she gets to Seaquestria, she does much better. She's seen coaxing some seaponies out of their homes to join in the fun, and she's playing with some of the foals. So by that point she had adjusted to the situation and was ready to do more.
• 9. Since the Storm Guards didn't count on Twilight's friends, the pirates, Capper and Skystar defeating them with no magic (Except for that indirect use from Rarity), there should've been at least some non-Unicorn ponies who could fight back.
  • I guess the only explanation is that they were outnumbered against the Storm King's forces. They are significantly bigger than the ponies after all. Maybe some earth ponies and pegasi did fight back, but they were ultimately captured. The ponies were unarmed when Canterlot was invaded, and unprepared. The rush at the end was a surprise attack and with allies who could match the Storm Guards for size (note that Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie keep their distances and use ranged attacks on the guards).
• 10. Twilight didn't need the pearl to transform when Twilight already has a spell that can do just that in It Ain't Easy Being Breezies, so there's no real reason why she would need it so bad to the point of trying to steal it.
  • The spell Twilight used in "It Ain't Easy Being Breezies" required a template creature (in that case, the Breezies), and we only saw it work when turning into smaller, more helpless creatures. It may not be possible to transform into the kinds of creatures the Pearl would allow them to become.
  • The Pearl is also able to transform multiple people at once. It's implied that Queen Novo transformed her entire kingdom at once to hide from the enemies. Even if it wasn't all at once, the Pearl transformed seven instantly. This makes it very useful as a weapon to use in a sneak attack - especially against forces that have Anti-Magic armor.
  • And maybe the pearl could reverse the petrification on the princesses too? Obviously in the end they were able to do that with the staff, but Twilight might have seen that as a possibility - and thus it would be four Alicorns without the element of surprise.

The Queen and the Princess

• Why didn't Twilight mention her role as a princess to Queen Novo or that it was Celestia who sent them (albeit indirectly and by accident)? That would've helped convince Novo to help.
  • They didn't really have time to introduce themselves before Queen Novo brushed them off. Twilight was so laser-focused on finding the Hippogriffs and learning about their power that she neglected to offer this information up front. Twilight is so caught up with completing her mission that she has forgotten how helpful opening up and making new friends can be - which is exactly what bites her in the flank just a few scenes later.
  • Twilight is also bound to have her guard up about revealing sensitive information. She's become convinced that Equestrian diplomacy doesn't work or at least not the way it does back home - so she might be worried about revealing herself as the princess. Or when Queen Novo brushed them off, Twilight decided she wouldn't help either way and that stealing the pearl was their best bet.

No Strife

• Why doesn't Strife from the prequel comics appear at any point in the movie? I doubt very seriously that the Storm King throwing him overboard in Issue 2 killed him that easily. He's a storm cloud creature.
  • Sure, but that doesn't mean he'd have a strong reason to make an appearance in the movie.
  • How so?
  • Strife has his own goals. He doesn't seem that intent on taking revenge on the Storm King, just on taking the next most attractive opportunity. He also doesn't seem to have enough of a bond with the parrots to tag along with them, especially since the parrots are now employees of the guy who hates his guts, and the Storm King has made it clear that he doesn't want him around. He would have every reason to look for work away from the Storm King's grasp, and few reasons to meet up with any of the main characters.
• Speaking of Strife, what indeed ARE his goals. What would he gain by becoming the STORM Kings #2, betraying him, meeting with pirates, and then disappearing to do something elsewhere?

No Pillars

• What would be an in-universe explanation of the absence of the Pillars?
  • "Shadow Play" said they were exploring modern Equestria to get up to date.
  • And the whole movie only happened in the space of three days. They might not have realised what was happening until the problem had already been solved.

A Pony Like Twilight

• When Twilight is captured by Tempest, she asks her why she's on the side of evil, claiming that Tempest is a pony like her. Except that there have been other ponies (Luna, Sunset, and Starlight) that we're evil too. Yes, all three examples ended up being redemed in the end, but the question still remains: Why is Twilight shocked that Tempest would be an enemy of Equestria and commit such evil acts when Twilight has seen and faced such ponies before?
  • Well Luna was corrupted by dark magic into Nightmare Moon (Word of God is that she was heavily influenced by a dark force). Twilight's question seems to be less "why are you evil?" than "why are you attacking your own kind like this?" - we haven't really seen ponies who actively attack their own kind in general. Sunset wanted to conquer the human world, and Starlight technically wasn't attacking anyone; when she got very aggressive, it was a personal vendetta against Twilight herself. Sunset too had a grudge against Celestia. Tempest meanwhile has no visible enemies, and is the first pony we've seen in the franchise to side with different species to declare war on their own kind. And indeed the three antagonists mentioned all had Freudian Excuses for being evil. Twilight helped redeem them all, so what she's really doing (as the Princess of Friendship) is trying to find out what Tempest's is in the hopes that she can help her and solve this conflict non-violently.
  • And given that Tempest has a broken horn, it's reasonable to assume that Twilight guessed her Freudian Excuse was tied to that. So she is trying to get Tempest to talk about her issues in the hopes of helping her. And that one question did indeed prompt Tempest to reveal her backstory, leading to Twilight befriending her.

The Staff's Power

• Why does the staff need all four Alicorn princesses to work? Not only did they forget Flurry Heart but there were only two Alicorns in Equestria for a thousand years before Cadance and Twilight came around?
  • I don't think it's said that the staff needs all four. It's just that the Storm King wants all four. As in he wants the combined magic of the four most powerful beings in Equestria. As for Flurry Heart we can assume a) he doesn't know about the baby, b) he doesn't understand pony magic and maybe assumes that a baby's magic isn't worth stealing, c) even he wouldn't attack a child.
    • Since we see the Cutie Mark Crusaders locked in a cage in the background and he tried to turn the Mane Six to stone Spike included, letter c is pretty much moot.
  • Or maybe it's more pragmatic than that. Going after the baby is going to be a challenge. The Storm King isn't powerful. He relies on surprise attacks and gadgets that get the job done. He has his forces attack when all four princesses are together - precisely because that's when he has the best shot at surprising them all at once. If he attacks the Crystal Empire, he still has Cadance to deal with - and she's going to be even more aggressive if he's coming after her daughter. And even if he's successful, he risks Celestia and Luna finding out and having enough time to protect Canterlot from his forces, and organise a mission to restore Cadance and Flurry's magic.
  • We don't really know enough about the staff to explain why Tempest said she needed all four princesses for it to work (if I recall right, it being a branch from the Tree of Harmony was just one idea the writers had for it). Perhaps it was made to work with four mature alicorns, and that number somehow creates an ideal amount of world-shaking power?

Storm Bucks

• So according to the Fridge page, it is theorized that Kludgetown is a land taken over by the Storm King because of the slavery also shown in Equestria and the mention of Storm Bucks. How does that prove anything? There were no Storm King forces patrolling Kludgetown. The only reason some of them are in Kludgetown is because they are helping Tempest search for Twilight and Verko doesn't seem to know who Tempest is. The Storm King is not responsible for all the slavery in the MLP world (King Sombra also enslaved his subjects) nor does he have to be. Besides the slavery is completely different from the one temporarily in Canterlot (It seems more of a crime ridden hellhole with the "slaves" being captured creatures and foreign ponies tricked by a cat in order to erase a debt). Storm Bucks might be only one of the currencies used by Kludgetown, which seems like a black market. So if not the Storm King, why is Kludgetown like this? Has it always been like this, or did it change when Verko became in charge?
  • Its certainly true that we don't know if Storm King is responsible for the slavery and other practices in Klugetown, but there is further evidence he holds some kind of dominion over it. Namely Capper remarks "glad I can be of service to his majesty, the Storm King," which can be read as implying Storm King is his ruler and given he is a resident of Klugetown...
  • Capper didn't come from Kludgetown though. He came from the cat country Abyssinia or to more specific, it's capital Panthera which the Storm King conqured in Issue 1 of the Prequel Comics. Besides, I think he called him his majesty out of fearful respect. Would you badmouth the Storm King in front of his number two (with destructive magic from her broken horn) and several of his mooks? I'd think not.

Twilight's Kingdom 2. 0

• Another thing some have noticed is that Twilight seems uncertain about her place as princess in the beginning of the movie. Since the movie takes place between seasons 7 and 8, hasn't she already been through this before in Twilight's Kingdom?
  • Twilight may be a Princess, but she doesn't always see herself as an equal to the other Princesses. She's been Celestia's student since she was a filly, and Cadence was her foalsitter. Asking them for favors is a daunting prospect for mostly psychological reasons, and Spike reminds her as much of this.
  • She's literally asking them to move the sun and the moon just for the sake of a concert. And "Lesson Zero" is a perfect example of how Twilight overthinks and overreacts to things.

Why not keep an eye on Celano's crew?

• So the Storm King forced a bunch of parrot pirates to work for him as cargo haulers, yet didn't place a single guard on their ship to keep them from trying to escape his clutches. Why would he let them go unsupervised thus giving the Mane Six a chance to convince them to turn on him?
  • Because he doesn't feel he needs to. Sure, the prequel comic mentions that they defied him a couple of times, but the Storm King has effectively cowed them into submission and forced them into their routine. It's possible that he assigned guards until he was certain they were adequately subdued, but by the time they meet the ponies they're effectively broken, and the guards would just take up cargo space. If they tried to escape, the Storm king could always send ships after them, and they know this.
  • Maybe there are usually more guards patrolling the skies, but the forces are all in Canterlot dealing with the invasion? Once the Storm King has the magic he wants, and Canterlot is under his command, they'll resume their original duties.

Only Four

• Why did the Storm King give Tempest only four Obsidian Orbs? Yes, there are only four Alicorn Princesses and he might not be aware of Flurry Heart's existence, but shouldn't the Storm King, the user of Pragmatic Villainy, have at least give her at least one extra orb in case she missed one?
  • Maybe that's all there were? And there are a couple of moments that hint the Storm King is suspicious of Tempest possibly betraying him. So he gives her four that she needs to subdue the princesses. If he gives her a fifth, once she has the princesses petrified, she might be tempted to use it on him and take the magic for herself. Which admittedly is something she may have done when she found out he had no intention of restoring her horn.
  • The Obsidian Orbs could be extremely difficult to manufacture. It's even possible that the invasion of Canterlot was delayed until there were enough Orbs available to do the job, and it only happened when it did because they finally had enough, but just barely.

Minor Nitpicks

These are minor nitpicks. Lets got them down

• 1. Why exactly DO Twilight's friends not take the journey as seriously as she does?
  • Because they've been through enough adventures together to know that they'll pull through and save Equestria just as they always do.
  • They also didn't see the princesses get petrified and none of them know that they're a walking target. If they're caught by the enemy, the worst that'll happen to them is getting locked in a cage. Twilight is going to have her magic drained. She's also the leader, and taking responsibility for the journey, while they're just tagging along.
  • Twilight's defining character flaw is excessive worrying. They didn't realize what a problem it was here before it hit the fan.
• 2. If the Storm King feared a betrayal from Tempest as implied, why does he say using people is kind of what he does?
  • Because he believes he can strike Tempest down easily after he gains the powers of the princesses, which is exactly what he tries to do next.
  • He doesn't turn on her until after he's got the princesses' magic, at which point he's more than a match for her.
• 3. How did Skystar transform from Seapony to Hippogriff without the pearl? Twilight's attempted theft should've led to an increase in security, making it more unlikely that she did use it. What does being the queen's daughter give you special treatment?
  • Perhaps the transformation magic that the Pearl employs can be ended by the target, so what we see isn't Skystar turning into a hippogriff, but Skystar turning back into a hippogriff.
  • Maybe Skystar offered to guard it and then used the magic to turn herself back.
  • I assumed being Novo's daughter gave her the same clearance to get past the security system as Queen Novo; either by virtue of being the princess, or via a genetic marker. In this case, accessing the Pearl would be easy.
  • Actually when the alarm first goes off, Novo glares at Skystar. Maybe that means she was supposed to be guarding it anyway? Novo was in the throne room when we meet Skystar but she had a seaweed wrap scheduled, so maybe her daughter was meant to guard it while she was away.
• 4. Why did Twilight think the pearl would stop the Storm King? Celestia never said to use it, and if the pearl really could stop him, they would've done just that instead of hide underwater as Seaponies forever.
  • She says it right in the movie: "With this, we could transform everypony at home into something powerful enough to face the Storm King's army!" If all of the ponies being held in Canterlot were transformed into fire-breathing dragons, it would potentially be a bad day for the Storm King. It's also important mentioning that Celestia never mentioned anything about a Pearl, let alone whether or not to use it, because Celestia didn't have time to lay out a coherent plan before she was petrified. Twilight took initiative and came up with a plan based on the resources available to her, which is exactly what Twilight does in a situation like this.
  • And Twilight knows that the Storm King's forces have armour that blocks her magic. So if they're transformed into other creatures that can match the Storm Guards for size and power, that's less of an issue. With the pirates, Capper and Princess Skystar that problem is also solved.
• 5. In Open Up Your Eyes, Tempest's lyrics are vague at best and the backstory was only shown to the audience, so how could Twilight guess her Freudian Excuse?
  • It's a common trope for flashback moments to omit the narrator's voice after entering the flashback so the audience can watch the moment unfold without being bogged down with all the details. It's possible that Tempest gave Twilight a short summary of what happened during the flashback moment, or Twilight came to the reasonable conclusion that someone with a disfigurement mocking the notion of friendship as childish and naive was someone who was trying to deal with the pain of being alone because of said disfigurement. Twilight's reply, "I'm sorry you felt so alone", is open for interpretation.
  • Tempest outright says "my friends abandoned me when times got tough". Even if she didn't get all of the information, Twilight could probably guess that the horn getting broken was what led to Tempest becoming a loner.
• 6. Since Rarity still has her magic, how come she doesn't at least try to use telekinesis to get the staff?
  • The staff is fairly far away from them. Telekinesis seems to have a very limited range in canon, which explains in "Sonic Rainboom" why Princess Celestia didn't catch Rarity when she began plummeting from Cloudsdale after her gossamer wings singed off.
  • Rarity's magic also isn't that powerful. She's more of a Girly Bruiser who uses her hooves to fight than her magic.
• 7. What greater uses (than parties) was Tempest referring to and how would working for the Storm King do anything about it?
  • She believes that their magic could restore her broken horn, and the Storm King, after gaining said magic, would do that for her.
• 8. How does Tempest taking the hit for the Mane Six and turning into stone also turn the Storm King into stone, but not the Mane Six who were standing next to him (This is also a problem in the beginning when the orb almost hit Twilight, yet Derpy was the only one turned to stone despite Rainbow and Twilight almost being too late to dodge.
  • Twilight escapes being turned into stone because Rainbow Dash swoops through to save Twilight before the orb breaks open. Remember that Rainbow Dash is very, very fast in the air, even when carrying another pony - they're both well out of danger when the orb breaks open. Also, the orb doesn't petrify its target instantly, and seems to follow the target. When Tempest takes the hit for the Mane Six, she keeps running away from them so the Mane Six are out of danger before the Orb's effect can spread to them, and she's close enough to the Storm King that the orb's effect will encompass him as well.
  • And maybe the orb was 'confused' by having so many targets to possibly spread to. It seems to zero in on the nearest target - since the one that got Cadence just got her when the other princesses were right behind her.
• 9. Since the pirates only attacked the Storm King's fleet as seen in the Prequel comics, what will they do now that the Storm King is gone?
  • Pretty much whatever they want. The Cutie Map in the season 8 episode "School Daze" seems to imply that they fixed their airship, so they might be working as freelancers now that they're not contractually obligated to work for the Storm King.
  • During their song they say they used to search for treasure, so presumably they'll go back to that.
• 10. WHY DID THE WRITERS HAVE SPIKE TRANSFORMED INTO A FREAKIN PUFFERFISH? THEY COULD'VE HAD HIM TURN INTO A SEA DRAGON, BUT NOOOO! HE HAD TO BE A FISH THAT BLOWS UP AND HAS NO RELATION TO DRAGONS WHATSOEVER! WHAT DOES HASBRO HAVE AGAINST SPIKE?
  • Rule of Funny. A sea dragon might work as a Stealth Pun, but is a bit obscure to general audiences. Meanwhile, a fish that inflates itself comically when surprised has a lot of potential. Not to mention that there's precedent for transformation magic working strangely with dragons: Spike becomes a talking dog in Equestria Girls after stepping through the magic mirror, despite his alicorn companion becoming a human.
    • Spike being a dog at least made more sense. A dog is loyal, like Spike. Plus, that's what the human world's Spike is so it's one-to-one.
    • Puffer fish are spiked. It's a pun.
  • Maybe Queen Novo had never seen a dragon before and turned him into what she thought would be the closest underwater creature match.
• 11. In the very beginning of "One Small Thing", Pinkie Pie, Princess Skystar, and the others are looking into a seashell and making faces at it. Pinkie Pie uses both of her hooves for her face, forming what looks like rabbit ears. Then the camera pulls back and it's shown that she was holding the seashell in her hoof. Huh?
  • It's Pinkie. Compared to some of her other stunts, that's relatively tame.
  • True, but I bet it looked strange to the characters in-universe.
  • Wouldn't be the first time she had extra limbs as the joke demanded; in "Hearthbreakers", she suddenly sprouts 15 more limbs to border the screen at one point, and Applejack looks appropriately confused in the next shot.

The Storm King's Rule

• So if the Storm King won, how would he able to rule the world if he betrays Tempest and his Mooks? Yes, the Alicorn magic absorbed into the staff would make him a One-Man Army, but he still needs an actual army to keep everyone in the world in line, like he did with Celano and her crew. Also, how would creating storms like tornados help him rule the world? Storms like these are very dangerous and take millions of lives, so the more he kills with those storms, the less he'll have people to bow to his "Ba-Ba-Da-Bomm Baby". And without Tempest, how is he going to have a successor to take over his empire once he's gone (Unless the power of the Alicorns give him immortality, but since the show doesn't confirm that the princesses themselves have immortality, we can't tell for sure)?
  • He only betrayed Tempest and not his mooks. He still has his guards in place at other locations (judging by Celaeno's crew). I think the storm was more celebrating that he had the magic now. Once the high from now having it had worn off, he might have calmed down.
  • You'd think he would order his mooks to evacuate the premise and/or seek shelter if that was the case.
  • Not necessarily. He's a Bad Boss who only acts benevolent for pragmatic, selfish reasons; if some faceless underlings are unlucky enough to be swept up in his maelstrom when he starts playing with his new toy, in his mind, it just sucks to be them.

Miraculous Survival Part 2

• Going back to above, the theory of Tempest only destroying the ship instead of killing the pirates in order to show the punishment of betrayal, but how? Even if they don't defy her or the king anymore, they don't have a ship to do their job with (and at this point, they are obviously not going to work for the Storm King anymore)
  • Well I'd say destroying their home and many of their belongings is a pretty steep punishment, and punishment is all she wanted to inflict on them. I doubt she cared about keeping them as employees afterward, given how they'd already shown their disloyalty repeatedly.

Trusting an evil king

• Tempest’s whole life philosophy revolved around not trusting others and relying only on oneself. So why exactly was she so shocked when the Storm King betrayed her? And heck, if she was willing to trust the Storm King, why didn’t she seek out Celestia or Luna for help with her horn? They’re extremely powerful, and they’re definitely WAY more trustworthy.
  • We don't even know if it was even possible to fix her horn. Maybe everyone else she would have went to failed to offer help such that by the time the Storm King offered, she was desperate. It can also be that she's not as content with that life philosophy as she wants to believe.
  • Maybe Tempest resented the princesses in some way? For being more powerful than her. She seems to take great delight in petrifying them at the start - note the terrifying look of glee on her face when she realizes she's got Celestia.
  • If we take the Prequel comic or The Stormy Road to Canterlot into account, Tempest was a lone wanderer for most of her life after losing her horn. Its entirely possible she believed that nopony could fix it and when The Storm King promised to fix her horn she saw that as her only possible opportunity to gain her horn back. Leading her to trust The Storm King out of necessity.
  • When Grubber brought up her horn, Tempest nearly lost her cool before recomposing herself. She's apparently not as secure in herself as her philosophy suggests.

Tempest in the chain of command

• I get that the Storm King wanted to use Tempest to conquer Equestria under the false promise of restoring her horn, but why does he put her as the second in command in charge of the entire army. Couldn't he just appoint one of his own Storm Creatures for the job while giving Tempest a bounty hunter like role? Putting her lower down the chain of command would reduce the chances of being tempted with overthrowing him (Especially considering he was betrayed the last time he had an outsider with personal ambitions as his second in command).
  • He needed a capable lieutenant in charge of his army to pull off capturing the Princesses. Capturing each one covertly without raising suspicion would be unfeasible, and with all of the ponies of Equestria at the Festival, she'd need her own army to keep them occupied as she dispatched the Princesses. Tempest was not only a capable lieutenant; she also faithfully served the Storm King right until his betrayal. Plus, given what we see of the Storm Creatures, I doubt any of them could cut it.

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