Tirek did not absorb ALL of the earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns

[ggg-2 3,553]

many sources say Tirek absorbed the magic flight and strength of every pony in Equestria. However, could it be those sources are wrong? in the episode, Twilight ordered everypony in Ponyville to hide indoors, remember?

[The Dark Lord 332]

I highly doubt that Tirek had the time to absorb every pony's magic, flight, and strength. That probably would have taken a lot longer.

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,161]

I highly doubt that Tirek had the time to absorb every pony's magic, flight, and strength. That probably would have taken a lot longer.

 

Agreed; not to mention we have little to no belief that he went after the crystal ponies as well.

[Castle Bleck 19,376]

I doubt even 4 alicorns + 1 draconequus = everypony else, so...

[(MARVEL) Blue Blood 991]

I've always guessed that he was on the verge of getting to every pony, and was going on to bigger things afterwards.

[baltoist 303]

With the alicorn magic I don't think he really cared about all of the other ponies.

[CMQuickfireTK 751]

of course he didn't. He was wanting to get the alicorns primarily.

[Jeric 46,854]

I've mentioned this before in a similar thread. In the logical timeline of the episode he targeted easy victims first. Like any battle strategy you want to maximize your ability to win, but not give the enemy enough time to prepare. Going after EVERY Pony would have taken too long, especial since we are aware of several transient and hermit like characters. This would be an inefficient battle plan. I think that his first goal was to steal just enough magic to be able to go after Celestia and the Princesses with confidence, and clean up later. We know he didn't have time to hit everyone with his magic vacuum cleaner since this whole event occurred quickly enough that word had not reached Ponyville that Discord betrayed them. The Mane 6 had no idea that when Discord showed up he had aligned Tirek.

 

Tirek's 'clean up plans' were also put on hold when he realized that there was one Alicorn left. All of this leads me to believe he attacked some major areas and left others alone for now. He had to move quickly.

[Pastel 7,630]

Of course not, the population of Equestria is HUGE. That would take a lot of of time to absorb everypony's magic.

[Naiya The Brony 483]

He can't possibly take it all in one big bad breath

[SCS 7,537]

I used to think Tirek had absorbed everyone's magic, but what Jeric said makes a lot of sense. However, he must have absorbed a lot in order for him to have become that powerful.

 

Additionally, I'm skeptical he went after the crystal ponies at all. He was probably well aware of what happened to King Sombra. Honestly, he wouldn't stand a chance against the crystal heart. It seems designed to defend specifically against negative/dark/hateful beings and energy, and Tirek is easily as negative as Sombra was, if not more so. 

[ggg-2 3,553]

Yeah, SCS, or he was unaware that the empire had even risen again.

[Fhaolan 4,484]

Yeah, SCS, or he was unaware that the empire had even risen again.

I'd actually go with this one. He seemed to be running off of out-of-date intel for his plans. He didn't know about Twilight, and may not have known about Cadance either if she hadn't of been standing right there with the Celestia and Luna when he burst in on them.

[~ Dr. Ocsid ~ 690]

I'd actually go with this one. He seemed to be running off of out-of-date intel for his plans. He didn't know about Twilight, and may not have known about Cadance either if she hadn't of been standing right there with the Celestia and Luna when he burst in on them.

He also didn´t know that Discord was free. And somehow I doubt he knew that Discord got petrified twice, since he was imprisoned in Tartaros at the time. 

[jeray2000 111]

I wonder though if he would even bother getting to every pony in Equestria. I mean, would he really even care about that 0.0000001% power boost he could get by finding the odd earth pony who lives in a cabin in the middle of the forest?

[~ Dr. Ocsid ~ 690]

I wonder though if he would even bother getting to every pony in Equestria. I mean, would he really even care about that 0.0000001% power boost he could get by finding the odd earth pony who lives in a cabin in the middle of the forest?

He probably wouldn´t, but as far as we have seen, he hasn´t even bothered with major cities like Manhattan. Hm, that would have been nice, seeing him wreaking havoc in Manhattan...

[Castle Bleck 19,376]

He was out-of-date on his intel (as someone else just said) and only needed a good bulk of theirs anyway.

[Jeric 46,854]

He probably wouldn´t, but as far as we have seen, he hasn´t even bothered with major cities like Manhattan. Hm, that would have been nice, seeing him wreaking havoc in Manhattan...

Hmmm. Another element would be Discords unexpected arrival. It's possible that deciding to manipulate Discord would have provided additional help so that Tirek could accelerate his plan more. When you have the Master of Chaos on your side, your arsenal and timetable gets a huge bump up.

 

Maybe Discord helping saved a few of the major cities from being attacked at all.

[~ Dr. Ocsid ~ 690]

Hmmm. Another element would be Discords unexpected arrival. It's possible that deciding to manipulate Discord would have provided additional help so that Tirek could accelerate his plan more. When you have the Master of Chaos on your side, your arsenal and timetable gets a huge bump up.

 

Maybe Discord helping saved a few of the major cities from being attacked at all.

That could be an explanation, yes.

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,161]

I used to think Tirek had absorbed everyone's magic, but what Jeric said makes a lot of sense. However, he must have absorbed a lot in order for him to have become that powerful.

 

Additionally, I'm skeptical he went after the crystal ponies at all. He was probably well aware of what happened to King Sombra. Honestly, he wouldn't stand a chance against the crystal heart. It seems designed to defend specifically against negative/dark/hateful beings and energy, and Tirek is easily as negative as Sombra was, if not more so. 

 

It really makes me wonder had Tirek succeeded in his plans (he imprisons the Mane 6, Spike, and Discord in Tartarus with the princesses) what he would've done about the crystal heart and crystal ponies.

 

Would Tirek have ended up like Sombra if he came close to the empire, or would his power overrun that of the crystal heart? Interesting scenario as I would imagine Tirek craving whatever power he could get from the crystal heart.

[jeray2000 111]

It really makes me wonder had Tirek succeeded in his plans (he imprisons the Mane 6, Spike, and Discord in Tartarus with the princesses) what he would've done about the crystal heart and crystal ponies.

 

Would Tirek have ended up like Sombra if he came close to the empire, or would his power overrun that of the crystal heart? Interesting scenario as I would imagine Tirek craving whatever power he could get from the crystal heart.

I think he would attempt it, and it would severely injure him before he stops his attack, but he would have enough power that he would be able to recover, then they'd reach a stalemate. The crystal empire would live off of however they get food, and Tirek simply wouldn't be able to cross their borders. It would infuriate Tirek that their is a place out of his reach yet nothing can be done with it, and the lack of trade would severely lower the living quality of the crystal ponies.

 

But I wonder what his plan was before Discord came along. It appears that without Discord, the princesses would either track down Tirek themselves, or send Twilight, and the reason they didn't was because it would take longer and more ponies would lose their magic in that time. However, they would eventually track Tirek down, and Tirek couldn't drain ponies en masse like how he did with Discord's assistance, so what was Tirek planning to do when that eventual confrontation came about? At some point he would grow big enough that hiding would be more or less impossible, but still much weaker than the combined power of even two alicorns.

[deadprofile 1,122]

From what the finale shows, Tirek seemed to go after any pony that basically crossed his path. With Discord at his side, he was able to essentially power up en masse at places where ponies gathered (like the theatre). Add the fact that by this time, ponies knew about Tirek and went after him (the pegasi) in groups, it just gave more to Tirek.

As far as the show goes, it shows that Tirek needs to be in close proximity to the ponies that he sucks their magic from, and that power seemed to grow with his own growth, but it still seemed limited to the very end.

It would take a very long time for Tirek to gather every pony's magic in Equestria. When I was watching it the first time, I never really assumed he gathered every pony's magic. He was basically making a beeline for the princesses from the get go. Take out the princesses of Equestria, and he would be able to run the show. I was actually baffled at the reasoning Celestia gave to give all the magic to Twilight, purely because of Cadence. She was in the same boat as Twilight. Heck, the entire Crystal Empire was gone for 1000 years, and princess-less when King Sombra ruled before the disappearance. So at the end of the day, Tirek technically did not know of Cadence's princesshood either, assuming we take the Crystal Heart Spell book as canon to the show. If not, assuming Cadence was always a princess just like Celestia and Luna (thus have immortality, which is never touched on with her character), then he did know, which legitimizes Celestia's reasoning.

[Darker 1,351]

It's obvious that he didn't absorb all the ponies in Equestria, the Crystal Empire was not attacked.