The lack of Pegasi and Unicorns in the Crystal Empre

[brian577 120]

I saw this theory on another website and it doesn't sound unreasonable and makes King Sombra the most evil villain the show has ever had.

 

There are statues of unicorns around the Crystal Empire, and even the jousting armor can be fitted for pegasi, that makes a gruesome amount of sense if Sombra's security system for the Crystal Heart involved a spell to open the way to a tall spire, you don't exactly want to keep around subjects that could circumvent it. As well, depending on what kind of racial traits you want to attribute to earth ponies, their enhanced strength and endurance makes them ideal slave labor, and their nature powers wouldn't do them any good deep undergroud where there's no plants or animals to aid them.

 

Sombra might have committed straight-up genocide against those races within his empire.

[Pinkazoid 3,493]

I actually thought Crystal Ponies was a completely different race of ponies, I didn't get to see the statues. I'm guessing it's just important figures for the ponies. As for the jousting armor, ehh, maybe it was just some sort of plot hole xD

 

I don't even know, it's late and I need sleep

[Pix3M 607]

Or there's the possibility that Crystal ponies are their own race as much as earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns. I personally think their take on this is unreasonable.

[iLegovideo 152]

Genocide? Likely. Of course, they wouldn't depict that in the actual show, as there might be some talk about a kid's show showing genocide as a normal thing in an empire, which is not the case.

[Lost Profile 644]

Hm...

 

I thought the crystal ponies were a different race...

 

Earth, unicorn, Pegasus, alicorn, crystal...

 

Idk... I'm not stressing over this detail.. But I don't know if I saw unicorn or Pegasus crystal ponies...

[The Weapon 168]

I actually thought Crystal Ponies was a completely different race of ponies, I didn't get to see the statues. I'm guessing it's just important figures for the ponies. As for the jousting armor, ehh, maybe it was just some sort of plot hole xD

 

I don't even know, it's late and I need sleep

 

That's actually a good idea that circumvents the sheer lethality of the other what-happened options. Hasn't every season premiere/finale (Except the Gala. Celestia's supposedly immortal or something so she can't die of boredom.) had a villain with severe lethality potential?

 

NMM could have caused major crop failure (Though she might have circumvented that magically for a less mass-kill more takeover style), Discord... Well, there's a lot of scary things in that there chaos. Chrysalis? She was straight-up assaulting Canterlot and was well more than capable of defeating everyone else if it wasn't for the last second love attack (Master Spark in shield form? Someone tell Marisa from Touhou...). Sombra... Well, now he has implied genocide along with his obvious slavery and mind control. Wow, is it just me or has it been getting darker around Equestria?

 

Crystal Ponies could be the other, rarer variant of normal-looking-technicolor-pony that doesn't have extra appendages, the main one being Earth Ponies. Presumably Crystal Ponies are especially focused on arts, skills, etc, being the Artisan stereotype to the Earth Ponies' Farmer stereotype?

 

The pegasus-compatible jousting armor may have been a preserved relic, or there happened to be a critical flaw in how the armor was made that made it perfect for pegasus use.

 

Lack of unicorns? Sombra blocked all their magical powerz or something like that. I don't know, maybe Crystal Ponies have an extremely low unicorn rate?

[Zygen 6,065]

I think that maybe the Crystal ponies are just a new race like it has been said by many. I don't remember any Pegasi or Unicorns in the Crystal empire, but I'll go check it out later. I still think that maybe they have their own powers of protecting the city, but thats it. I don't know if they even inherit the earth pony's traits of connection to the earth, but I guess who knows. Maybe we'll see more of the Crystal ponies and be able to make a conclusion on this better. I'm pretty sure an act of genocide won't be put on a show like MLP though.

 

The only thing that wouldn't make sense for the Crystal ponies to all be wingless and hornless, but also not earth ponies. is that Princess Cadence who apparently is a Crystal pony has both wings and a horn. However it may have to do with the fact she may be half Alicorn and half crystal pony. Or it may just be a royal blood thing kinda like with Alicorns ruling Equestria.

 

Its an interesting theory though.

[null1 606]

I think it was an editor oversight to not include pegasi and unicorns amongst the Crystal Empire populace. If we ever see the Empire again in a later episode, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw the aforementioned species in a Crystal form.

 

Or maybe it's mainly just an Earth-Pony based land.

[brian577 120]

Hm...

 

I thought the crystal ponies were a different race...

 

Earth, unicorn, Pegasus, alicorn, crystal...

 

Idk... I'm not stressing over this detail.. But I don't know if I saw unicorn or Pegasus crystal ponies...

 

They were none but we did see statues of Unicorns and armor designed for Pegasi suggesting they existed at one time. I half expected some of them to get wings/horns when Sombra was defeated thinking he may have been suppressing those traits to keep them docile but that was not case.

Edited November 21, 2012 by brian577

[Party Cannon 874]

All above comments are insightful.

 

It may simply be more of an animation thing than something written into the script.

 

A theory though is that they or their ancestors specialized in mining. You know how in Hearth's Warming Eve they talk about what which ponies are best at, and how the Earth ponies were best at growing food? Well, it could be a fair assumption that they can be good at mining, as it is more "Earth oriented?"

 

Yet, as seen in A Dog and Pony Show unicorns are best suited to at least locating crystals.

 

Hm, that is tricky.

[Auryn 95]

I didn't see Crystal Ponies as a completely separate race, more like a sub-race or breed of Earth pony. We have to remember that, before the events leading to the founding of Equestria, the pony races were all segregated. Since time lines don't make much sense in FIM (WTF is up with the reoccurring 1,000 year/100's of year old stories? Give us an actual date system!), Sombre's reign might have taken place before Earth ponies, Pegasi, and Unicorns interacted with each other.

 

It's my head cannon that Sombre being a Unicorn is what allowed him to take over so easily. A breed of peaceful Earth ponies would be easy for a Unicorn to rule over. I was surprised how okay the Crystal Ponies were with the appearance of the Mane Six, Shining Armor and Cadence.

[thegoodhen 698]

Most background characters are Earth ponies, see for yourself

 

(@@Clarity gun kill me O-o)

 

I even recall one animation glitch when there was an Earth pony sitting on a cloud in "Sonic rainboom".

 

Ah, here ya go:

http://images.wikia...._pony_cloud.JPG

 

I think it's just easier for the animators to make Earth ponies.

Edited November 21, 2012 by thegoodhen

[Auryn 95]

I don't think it was a coincidence that every since Crystal Pony was an Earth Pony. They were all completely unique designs for that episode. The animators worked really hard on making the Crystal Ponies separate from the typical background ponies.

[brian577 120]

Most background characters are Earth ponies, see for yourself

 

(@@Clarity gun kill me O-o)

 

I even recall one animation glitch when there was an Earth pony sitting on a cloud in "Sonic rainboom".

 

Ah, here ya go:

 

 

I think it's just easier for the animators to make Earth ponies.

 

What's your point? One, Ponyville is an Earth Pony town there for most of the population would be earth ponies. Secondly there were wasn't just a lack of pegasi or unicorns there were ZERO. This was not an animation or laziness error, this was a deliberately done.

Edited November 21, 2012 by brian577

[thegoodhen 698]

What's your point? One, Ponyville is an Earth Pony town there for most of the population would be earth ponies. Secondly there were wasn't just a lack of pegasi or unicorns there were ZERO. This was not an animation or laziness error, this was a deliberately done.

 

My point is it's easier to animate earth pony then pegasus/unicorn. The point still stands. I think they made the crystal pony design from scratch and just didn't bother much about the wings or horns.

[brian577 120]

My point is it's easier to animate earth pony then pegasus/unicorn. The point still stands. I think they made the crystal pony design from scratch and just didn't bother much about the wings or horns.

 

Yet they gave the mane 6 the crystal designs. I'm not an expert on animation but I don't think it would be difficult to cut, paste and recolor the horns and wings on to the crystal ponies. If they can go through the trouble to animate dozens of individual Pegasi in Hurricane Fluttershy (and wings are a lot more complex than horns) I'd think they could have given a few of the crystal ponies wings and horns.

Edited November 21, 2012 by brian577

[Negative 67]

Yet they gave the mane 6 the crystal designs. I'm not an expert on animation but I don't think it would be difficult to cut, paste and recolor the horns and wings on to the crystal ponies. If they can go through the trouble to animate dozens of individual Pegasi in Hurricane Fluttershy (and wings are a lot more complex than horns) I'd think they could have given a few of the crystal ponies wings and horns.

 

Good point. I also agree with the Crystal ponies being a completely different species and crystal unicorns and pegasi are non-existent.

 

They have their 'crystaliness' and sparkly eyes and everything, so maybe wings and horns aren't necessary.

[Dusty Soul 2,611]

I believe they were another race entirely. Appleoosa is strictly earth-pony, so why not? I don't think pegasus crystal ponies, nor unicorn crystal ponies are necessary.

[The Weapon 168]

Wait... The Crystal EMPIRE. One city does not qualify as an empire. Otherwise Celestia rules a major one: She has at least 2 cities, (Depending on the size of Ponyville and what exactly Everfree counts as), possibly more, even if outer towns and cities like Appaloosa, Cloudsdale, Manehattan-area, etc. are ALL independant nations that just so happen to have a really good relationship with Canterlot because Celestia happens to have a magical nuke device and access to the sun as a weapon and as what the sun normally does. The Crystal Empire is clearly more than one city, or at least should have a second, smaller castle somewhere in the city to show that it was so big it absorbed a neighboring city over time.

 

Maybe the city we see is just the capitol, greatest-city-but-not-capitol, former capitol, or one of the capitols (Gah, pony society, y u no simplify!?) of the empire, which just so happened to have had a perfect 100% Earth Pony population at the time Sombra showed up and got beat up by Celestia/Luna Elements Of Harmony attack later.

 

Maybe the unicorn population and pegasus population lived in neighboring castles/cities? That were also oppressed by Sombra and just happened to not have the Crystal Heart and therefore could deal with it themselves by virtue of not being steamrolled directly by Sombra, and/or being out of his reach due to the wing spell being not developed yet and/or classified research at the moment and insanely strong shield spam over the theoretical unicorn castle.

 

Considering Sombra was able to negate Shining Armor outright but had to wear down Cadance, it is quite possible Sombra simply disabled or outright killed the normal unicorns in the Crystal Heart City that could pose a threat (and the few remaining were recuperating in underground hospitals or something, or left the city), and all the pegasi flew away (Sombra didn't make any transparent shield domes or anything.), and the theoretical-alicorn-Cadence-equivalent was either destroyed and reformed as Cadance, or was Cadance as a baby who happened to have a very abnormal growth rate, or Cadance is from a really long line of offscreen Crystal Kings/Queens/Princes/Princesses who were living in the background of Canterlot's court or someplace while the Crystal Empire stood frozen in time under the ice or whatever.

[pinkieshyrose 58]

i think crystal ponies are a diffrent race that can breed with unicorns they proably had canter lot at about the time they were sent back and were proably a peace scince princess celestia was there into sombra went into power the reason there was so few unicorns could just be that it was hard to go to the crystal kingdom the jousting uniform was proably so that every race race could have a fair chance scince the crystal fair is a show event not a real battle...

[MorningFlash 214]

I mean there is a possibility of genocide, but there is also the theory that the Crystal Ponies might be their own race, just like the earth ponies, the pegasi and the unicorns. So that could possibly add up to the lack of unicorns and pegasi in the Crystal Ponies episode.

[Mentis Soliloquy 3,024]

Damn I am reviving this topic, but I'd love to discuss this more with someone.

 

I was looking to see if I could update my own Crystal pony I have to become a Unicorn/Crystal Pony, so I googled and I came back here dur and to Mlp.wikia on there I found this gentlecolt. 

Now he's the same design as this fella.

 

This would lead me to belive that there are pegasus/Crystal Ponies, so... could their be unicorn? Honestly I'm searching for a canon pony that could allow my head canon so I can make the alteration to one of my OC's otherwise this will make this change too un-canon for my own tastes. 

[Cwanky 17,469]

The possibility of genocide, or at least outright exile is a strong possibility with the Crystal Empire given its past. King Sombra goes beyond even what most villains in the show would do, being an outright tyrant and enslaving an entire race. While genocide is less likely the possibility of exile is still very real. We have also seen the concept of death mentioned several times in the show, notably with the coffin and funeral during Hearts and Hooves Day and the writers confirmed that Sombra himself died.

 

Although pegasi may have been a target for genocide or exile, the unicorns, if there were that many to begin with, would be prime targets for Sombra to eliminate in the Crystal Empire. Considering how powerful Twilight and now Starlight are, its not surprising that Sombra might try to eliminate any potential rivals and usurpers. Any remaining unicorns like Sunburst either went into hiding or were deemed too weak and inconsequential to pursue. Sombra would then easily consolidate and monopolize his own power as the main powerful unicorn in his empire.

 

With the pegasi, I think the ecology and biology can adequately explain why there's not many pegasi in the Crystal Empire, or farther north for that matter. Birds typically migrate south when the weather gets cold and from what we've seen the pegasi are NOT adapted to the climate of the Frozen North that surrounds the Crystal Empire. Its not only freezing, the winds are incredibly strong, strong enough to deter and cripple the Princesses. Given that pegasi already struggle in stormy conditions, if an alicorn princess with full blown magic can't handle the Frozen North for long, neither can the best pegasi. Only a few select pegasi like the lavender knights who are acclimated and adapted to the north seem able enough to just tolerate the weather. Besides, the Crystal Empire doesn't use weather control to keep itself warm, it has the magic of the Crystal Heart to provide for everyone.

[Landi 598]

Crystal Ponies are one of two things. The first possibility is that they are their own species of pony separate of the main three. They have a few magical traits of their own that can differentiate them from earth ponies. Along with that, maybe crystal ponies are a type of Earth Pony (like batponies to pegasi). The second possibility is that being a crystal powers of crystal ponies is a magical thing. Basically, there can be Crystal versions of the three main types of ponies. Something that helps this theory is that we see the main six become temporary crystal ponies, and I think we've seen a couple peg/uni crystal ponies in the newer episodes.

Both are possibilities and either could be true. I personally would've loved to see more crystal pegasi, but it's not the end of the world.

[Ittoni 536]

One curious thing to notice is that the crystal royal guard is mostly pegasi. I  don't exactly know why.

But I agree. They might be a type of earth pony just like bat ponies are kinda like a sub especies of pegasi