Crystal empire I'm confused..

[CinnamonSwirl 90]

I'm sorry I don't know where this would go. So I am very confused about the crystal empire and hoping somepony can clear it up for me. So the crystal empire was gone for thousands of years because of king sombra. Well, why didn't princess cadance disappear with them? I'm assuming she found out she was the crystal pony princess at very young age becaus it shows the crystal heart on her flank in flash backs. And that also brings something else up. Why does twilight call her a unicorn when she's clearly an alicorn? And I thought princess don't age? and if the crystal empire was gone why was cadence worried about marrying shining armor than saving her town? I'm confused.

[Pastel 7,630]

Not 100% sure:

Cadance was a unicorn when she was born, but for unknown reasons she's now an alicorn. So she's like Twilight: an "artificial" alicorn, and unlike Celestia or Luna (who are immortal) they do age.

She became the princess of the Crystal Empire very recently, and she had no link with it before.

However, about her cutie mark, I don't know maybe the fact that it's a crystal heart (because she's the princess of love) and that there's a crystal heart in the Crystal Empire is a coincidence?

 

EDIT: Looks like I'm wrong.

Edited August 23, 2014 by Blobulle

[Abia 258]

Alicorns were referred to as Unicorns before Magical Mystery Cure. See the first episode--there were two Unicorn princesses, not two Alicorns. Cadance was a Pegasus before she became princess. Like Twilight, she did not originally have a kingdom. Her cutie mark was a crystal because it knew that ruling the Crystal Empire would be a part of her destiny, even if it had not happened yet.

Alicorns do age; they are not immortal. But they age much more slowly than normal ponies.

[Fhaolan 4,493]

Okay, here is what we know:

 

According to the novel Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell, Cadance was originally a normal Pegasus who became an Alicorn through a similar, but less dramatic method than Twilight did back when she was very, very young. And was then 'adopted' by Celestia.

 

This all occurred long after the Crystal Empire had been vanished by Sombra, so Cadance had no overt connection to the Crystal Empire at that time.

 

Cutie-marks appear to have semi-prophetic overtones. So Cadance's cutie-mark represented to her, her power of Love. The fact that it resembled an artifact that nobody had seen in a thousand years, nobody noticed. Except possibly Celestia, who was the only pony who had half a chance to recognize it. Possibly another reason for the adoption. Celestia is well known for not telling ponies everything she knows.

 

Celestia and Luna appear to have somewhat different attributes as Alicorns, than Cadance and Twilight. It's possible that their 'unaging' nature, and the cosmic manes are something that only kicks in after they've reached a certain age. Or there are two types of Alicorns. Lauren Faust mentioned that Celestia and Luna were born Alicorns, but as she's not running the show anymore that's not necessarily true. If it is true, then born Alicorns are actually slightly different from ascended Alicorns.

 

Finally, prior to the Magical Mystery Cure, the term 'Alicorn' wasn't used in the show, just in fan-works. Prior to that the Princesses were all referred to as 'winged unicorns', or just 'unicorns' in-show whenever they weren't called 'Princesses'. The culture in Equestria seems to think that 'Princess' and 'Alicorn' are interchangeable words, and Princess takes precedent.

[CinnamonSwirl 90]

Ooh ok lol makes sense ...a tad... Or a little bit...

[sweetolebob18 728]

Yes.  I would also point out that, by times mentioned, the Crystal Empire must have vanished about the time Luna became Nightmare Moon.  IMO, it is possible these events are connected.  If they are not, it is certainly an odd coincidence.