GrifCannon

Its quite possible that the Elements of Harmony were providing the Mane 6 some limited protection from the vines passively. My other idea is that they were using the majority of their strength restraining Celestia and Luna. Also, on the topic of twilight retrieving the elements at any time from the tree, you have to remember that we don't know how long the elements were in the tree before the sisters claimed them. We just know they left enough magic in the tree to protect it for 1000+ years. Its possible that the tree is still "recharging" and if twilight were to remove the elements now, the vines would return or the forest would grow out of control again. Remember Celestia's line "the tree will continue to control and contain all that grows here" seeing as she had no knowledge of the discord vines, she clearly meant that the forest itself still needs to be contained. Edit: Also, it would be really inconvenient for the mane 6 to have to travel to the Everfree forest every time they needed to use the elements.

For those that missed my post in the SDCC thread, we know (or at least have an idea) what the season opener will be about.

Something I didn't see anyone mention: If you look at the number at the bottom for each scene, it tells you which episode of the season each scene is from. Scootaloo is episode 405 for example, spike's scene is 406, the apple family song is 409, and Nightmare Moon is episode 401....which means its the season opener!

Actually, you see the moon and the three stars around it right after the title sequence and it cuts to SSS infiltrating the palace I also agree with you that Equestria and the human world are on different day-night cycles. Likely due to the Sun and moon moving on their own in the human world and being controlled by celestia and luna in Equestria. Its entirely possible that Equestrian days are longer/shorter than human days because of this.

People seem to forget that humans and ponies age and mature at different rates. Not to mention that time appears to flow differently in the human world from equestria. From the (pony) mane 5's point of view, twilight went into the mirror and returned sometime later that morning, while in the human world, she was there for about 3 days. It might have something to do with the fact that the sun and moon move naturally in the human world as opposed to equestria where celestia and luna move them. It makes sense that the pony's ages might not match up perfectly with their human counterparts. Plus, the CMC look to be the same age as the mane 5 do in the photo that twilight finds in the yearbook, and that was from when they were freshmen.

1. She was not the true wielder and therfore it brought out what she truly looked like on the inside. I wouldn't call her magic black magic. It was the same color as her unicorn magic, just corrupted by her not being the true element wielder. 2.She was celestia's student. Its possible that celestia originally intended for her to be the element wielder and therefore she possessed the magical prowess to activate it, even if she couldn't unlock its true power. As a side note, was anyone getting a HUGE Chrysalis vibe from her when she transformed. It think it was the voice.

Pinkie already confirms that Rainbow Dash is Captain of all or most of the sports teams at the school. She states this when twilight is in the gym with pinkie and AJ talking about RD. Sorry to ruin your headcannon.

A really simple reference they could do would just show the photo of human twilight and her friends from the Fall Formal somewhere in the library.

I just thought of a possible explanation as to how Sunset Shimmer knew of the Elements of Harmony and that twilight was in the castle. Depending on how long the portal stays open each time it opens (because all we were really told was how much time it had left before it closed again) for all we know, it could have opened earlier that day and sunset snuck out and saw twilight's arrival. She then went back in and waited til nightfall to return for the crown. Also, depending on how long 30 moons are, she may have snuck out before to check up on current events in Equestria and learned of the Elements. Remember, the mirror was previously kept in canterlot castle before it was moved to the crystal empire. She could have easily learned about some of the major events that took place in her absence and then returned to the human world to formulate a plan.

1. Twilight was never really enrolled in the school, none of the teachers knew her so it wouldn't seem anyone was missing from their class. 2. Its implied that the Element of Magic gained its powers from the human versions of the mane 6, they were likely similar enough to the true element bearers that it couldn't differentiate between them. Plus it enforces the message that the magic of friendship comes from the friends themselves, not the elements. 3. Spike pretended to not be able to talk when he realized thats not a normal thing in the human world. It wasn't until twilight told her friends of her true nature that spike started talking openly around them. 4. Am i the only person that felt that Celestia and Luna didn't quite match up to their pony counterparts? Something about them felt "off." Plus, those Photoshopped pictures of twilight wrecking the gym were pretty convincing. 5. It seemed that not all of them were on bad terms. AJ seemed to be on good enough terms with the rest of them except RD. It seemed all of them were only mad at one specific friend. They likely would have sorted it out on their own eventually. The biggest plot hole to me was how Sunset shimmer knew that twilight had the element of magic and that she was in the castle when the portal became active?

A couple holes in your analysis: 1: Twilight is never seen telling the other mane 6 what cadence was like. She just complained to them about her behavior and acted very possessive. Also, Celestia and Luna were clearly to preoccupied on keeping a lookout for the threat that they never assumed it could already be in the city. They probably didn't have very much interaction with cadence (if any) during the wedding preparations. Plus chrysalis would have known to play her part and not give herself away. By the time twilight came into the picture, she had grown overconfident and likely believed that even if she were discovered, she had already sapped enough of shining armor's love to weaken the shield and allow the other changelings in. 2: Celestia never asks them to "find" the elements. The exact line is "The Elements of Harmony, you must get to them, and use their power to defeat the queen." 3.You have somewhat of a point. Chrysalis already had first-hand experience with the power of shining armor's love for cadence and she should have known better when it was about to be used against her. It is possible she underestimated the magical power of cadence, (seeing as she had already overpowered her before) and wasn't expecting their combined strength to be so overwhelming. 4.The spell that Shining armor and cadence cast together was obviously different from the shield he was casting earlier. Cadence was basically doing the unicorn equivalent of jumper cables and loaning her magic to shining armor to power his spell. Notice how their horns touch and you see cadence's magic being fed to shining. The spell itself was more of a repulsion force focused on the changelings. That being said, I see no evidence showing that this keeps them out permanently. Presumably, they could return in disguise. 5. I do wish the mane 6 had put up more of a fight. TBH the smart thing would have been to have RD fly ahead and get to the elements first seeing as she's the fastest and bring them back. Twilight, who has proven to be able to learn spells just by witnessing them could have tried to reinforce the shield just to buy them a little more time. In fact, she probably knew this spell for quite some time seeing as she used it in Return of Harmony and Ponyville Confidential. She may have learned it from shining armor before she left canterlot. Plus, we all know the kind of raw magical power she has. I bet if she had tried, she could have attmepted to keep the shield up just a little longer.

Don't forget, he seems to be able to use his fire to magically store things in some type of "buffer" like he does with his Dragon Code card as seen in Spike at Your Service. He is able to summon the card at will and "breaths" it away again. I'm assuming he didn't send that to celestia.

didn't read through the whole thread, but I thought this one was hilarious. Definitely gotta be my favorite "out of context screenshot"

Everyone seems to act like the CMC getting their cutie marks would cause them to stop being the CMC. Why? I always figured that once they get their own cutie marks they could devote their organization to helping other fillies gain theirs as well.

A mlp novel that was released tuesday called "Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell." It involves alicorn twilight asking cadence for princess advice basically. In the process we learn Cadence's backstory. She was an orphaned pegasus that was found and raised by a village of earth ponies. Some evil unicorn named Prismia tried to cast a spell to sap the love out of the village but cadence stopped and reformed her. Thats when cadence became an alicorn.

The book basically states that Cadence is Celestia's adopted niece. Cadence and Celestia first met in the "strange place" where her alicorn transformation took place. I'm pretty sure Blueblood never states that he is related to Celestia. Rarity just assumes he's her nephew. It could totally be a case of mistaken identity. The only thing we know for sure is that he's a prince.

Just read the book last night. It plays out very much like a typical episode, but there are a few reasons why I now doubt it will ever be made one. --Gilda and Trixie are the "antagonists" --Its somewhat anticlimactic, making it fairly unlikely to be a 2-parter --Twilight travels back and forth between the crystal empire and ponyville like twice That being said, i would consider the book canon seeing as the contradtictions to the show are pretty minor.

It likely only contradicts those events because the book was written before those episodes were aired. The author was obviously privy to inside information about "Magical Mystery Cure" before it aired, but likely wasn't given information about episodes the show's writers didn't deem relevant to the books plot.

If I remember correctly, the writers never denied Twilicorn, only Tara did, and she only denied it once, not multiple times like everyone seems to think.

The footage you saw was probably taken from FiM in another country. It airs on Mexico's equivalent of Nick for example. I think france does too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhoJP0R2s7k&list=FLEu1AtU9uo9Zm8Y88loBiBw&index=18 German version of Art of the Dress, has the Nick Jr logo at the top.

Meghan McCarthy just tweeted denying that Sunset Shimmer will appear in season 4 Although, apparently, according to the box on one of Sunset's toys. She is a former student of celestia.

Rarity definitely designed them. The one she's wearing is the one she designed the episode itself. Go rewatch "A True, True Friend." Its the dress she makes to help out AJ.

At the recent Unicon, I'm pretty sure the writers confirmed that the six stars on the banners and in the sky after twilights transformation was indeed an animation error. If you look at her actual cutie mark, in the few frames we actually get to see it, its still the same.

One other thing I want to add. I'm not opposed to the theory that Celestia assigned Cadence to sit for twilight. She may have already had her eye on twilight before the exam. Remember, twilight was considered "Gifted" even before her exam and accidentally showing her raw power. Remember B.B.B.F.F.? She was levitating a book efortlessly. How many other unicorn fillies have we seen in the show with that degree of control over their magic at that age? Off the top of my head, I can't think of any. Plus, during the Cadence flashback twilight appears to be living in the castle so its entirely possible that her parents work under Celestia or through Shining Armor's connections while training to be a guard. Plus at that point, Shining Armor already has his cutie mark at that point so he has probably proved himself to be capable of generating powerful magic sheilds (which I assume is what his cutie mark represents and would make him an ideal candidate for captian of the royal guard) and therfore earned Celestia's attention. As other people have suggested before, the dragon-egg hatching exam was unlikey intended to be passed, and celestia implemented it as a way to reveal a powerful unicorn.

I just rewatched the wedding episodes and one thing I noticed was that Twilight did not have her cutie mark during the Cadence flashbacks, meaning that they take place before Twilight's entrance exam and before she met celestia . Also, Cadence mentions that Twilight was her favorite filly to sit for, meaning that there were others. To me this just says that Cadence loved looking after foals in general, not because Celestia assigned her to watch over them specifically. But everything else I agree with