Anyone Notice Cadence is not Sparkly and Crystal-like?

[poniesforfun 716]

If anyone saw her in comparison to the other crystal ponies in that spa she was the only one not crystal and sparkling. If she originated from the Crystal Empire shouldn't she be a Crystal Pony and be crystal-like as well?

[The Mane-iac 1,648]

It's unknown if she actually originated from there, but I found it odd none of them were crystaly since they were at the end of this seasons opener. Same with the other ponies visiting, shouldn't they have become crystal versions as well? I only see two options here: the effect at the end of the season opener was a special case caused by the surge of magic from the heart being restored, or the studio wanted the normal ponies to stand out.

[Bucky McGillyCuddy 956]

If i was one of the animators I wouldn't want to have to animate them sparkling throughout an entire episode either haha. I'm not saying that's the case but it would have been a contributing factor i think. 

[Descant 1,898]

Yeah, it might have just been a case of animator lazies, but... It was sorta odd that, upon returning to the Crystal Empire, nopony reverted to crystal form.

 

Now that I think of it... Would a Crystal Pony remain Crystal if they left the Empire?

[Twinhead B 482]

It was almost certainly animation convience. Imagine having a whole episode with nothing but semi-transparent crystal ponies. It would've been hell for the animators and hell on the viewer's eyes.

[Leafeon 2,702]

Well, if she was, it would have been obvious and not a twist. So, yea.

 

Not to mention, she may not have been born there, or if her parents were Crystal ponies.

[TailsIsNotAlone 3,695]

When did they say Cadence (thank you for spelling her name right) originated from the CE? I always had the impression she grew up in Canterlot, being Twilight's foalsitter and all. I could be wrong though. There are still many things we don't know about Cadence, though she's not nearly as much a cipher as Celestia and Luna.

[Wingnut 6,994]

In addition to the crystal heart cutie mark, Cadance has always had an unusually shiny sheen to her mane and tale.  I wonder if ponies she grew up with thought that shininess was weird or freaky even.  But those were foreshadowing that she was always destined to take command of the Crystal Empire. 

 

My personal hypothesis:  The crystal heart's energy was pent up due to being in King Sombra's control. The initial outburst, as Puddlejumper suggested, was powerful enough to instantly turn every pony crystally.  Since then it has ebbed to normal levels and only full time residents look like crystal.  That explains why visitors, including the Mane 6, don't change appearance now.  But it doesn't explain why Cadance herself doesn't sparkle like everybody else who lives there.  Instead, Cadance still has the subdued shiny look the Crystal Empire ponies did before the crystal heart was recovered. 

Edited February 13, 2013 by Wingnut

[Rainbow Dash 1,472]

I was under the impression that Cadance was born in raised in Canterlot and her cutie mark represented her ability to spread love. When she became the princess of the crystal empire i thought she was told to by Celestia since the original ruler was King Sombra and the Crystal ponies were all without a heart. Maybe its the bountiful amounts of love at the Crystal Empire that makes the ponies crystal like. I dont know much and these are only speculations.

[Prismatic 49]

My understanding is that the episodes were not animated in chronological order.  It's very possible that this episode was made well before the season opener (only 13 episodes means it could be a bit spread out in terms of being in chorological production order; a few Season 2 episodes were similar around the Hearthwarming Eve time) and it just so happened that for time being they weren't crystalized (on a different note how the sad pony still retained their form despite the lack of happiness for that brief duration).

 

As for a canon hypothesis the Crystal Heart acts as a sort of amplifier.  Since it doesn't have any sort of need to be empowered I'm sure it and the rest of the crystal ponies are in a rested state as to not totally drain their energies.

[Tall_But_Short_37 233]

My head-canon:

 

• The crystal coats are normally only expressed on ponies which are born of crystal ponies
• An exception to this rule is made with surges of massive amounts of magic from the crystal heart, which can temporarily turn normal ponies to a crystal form
• Cadence was not born of crystal pony descent, but was instead the prophesied "crystal princess" which would come save their kingdom one day, which would explain why she does not have a crystalline coat

Alliteratively:

 

• The expression of crystal coats could be controlled by a more real-world system of dominant and recessive alleles which tuning on and off the trait
• This is unlikely, and for the most part is just my brain making random connections with my AP Biology class

[Two-of-Hearts 168]

My head canon theory is that Cadence's ancestors were the original king and queen of the CE, but King Sombra took over and they went into exile. After the CE dissapeared Cadence's ancestors beseeched Princess Celestia, and Celestia gave them sanctuary in Canterlot. During the next thousand years they intermarried with Canterlot commoners, thinning their bloodline to the point where they no longer had Crystal Pony 'shinyness.'  I also imagine that after a while the CE royal family were no longer producing alicorn offspring, and Cadence being born an alicorn was taken as a sign that the Empire would be returning soon and that she would be destined to return as its ruler.

[RoseLaflesh 38]

I agree with the general idea that the sparkling coats were probably from a surge of magic that temporarily transformed all ponies that weren't crystal ponies until they left the crystal bubble. Although, I disagree that the surge came from the heart itself. I think it was because seeing the heart for the first time in over a millenia, not to mention seeing their princess holding the heart, brought out such a great amount of joy and hope in the crystal ponies that they threw their all into saving the Crystal Empire, which turned out to be more than enough energy to bring things back to normal, vaporize Sombra, and turn everyone crystal. The heart just acts on positive energies the same way a magnifying glass does on light: it amplifies and directs energy.

 

Although this is just my hypothesis  I'm sure the animators and writers didn't actually have this in mind, and having every pony turn crystal was only for an effect (like maybe an epic ending or showing the ability of the crystal heart wasn't just blowing evil ponies up), and since everything is supposed to be stable in the Crystal Empire there's no need for that effect.

 

Also, I think the decision to leave them normal not only came from the people working on the show, but probably Hasbro itself. It would probably cost them more than necessary to make everyone looking crystal again. That's probably why we barely saw any crystal ponies in that episode, as well as why (in the Crystal Empire episodes)  they turned the mane six back as soon as possible.

 

Besides, I can see that getting pretty annoying after a while. To quote the show, "Good things are better when they are a rarity   ."

Edited February 13, 2013 by RoseLaflesh

[Unique Pinkie Pie 173]

you see crystal ponies were born like that while candance was not its just pony genetics in the world of technicolor ponies

[Princes Cadance 345]

I have yet to watch this episode, doing so right now but I would think this is due to most crystal ponies originating from the crystal empire or "of crystal blood". Or maybe because they lived their whole life there, anyway I'm gonna get back on here after I watch the episode

Cheers

-Cadance

[silvadel 1,393]

I also thought that Cadence and Shining should have been crystal.  I mean they have been on Arakkis long enough to get the blue within blue eyes.  There have to have been other mini-bursts similar to when they got the equestria games to help renew the effect.

[Zygen 6,066]

Well I think its pretty obvious cadence herself can't originate from the Crystal empire, seeing as it didn't reappear until the begging of S3. Whether she has relatives there that lived there long ago is a different story.

 

I think it was partly for animation convince that they didn't have them all sparkly. And I think the effects where a temporary thing from the surge of magic caused by the crystal heart, it makes sense.

 

I feel like the rational reason was because animating sparkling ponies all episode would be hard though. Or maybe they just wanted to have the mane 6 not blend in as much.

 

I don't think Cadence is actually a crystal pony, if she was she'd be crystallized looking anyways. Why shes the Crystal princess I'm not really sure there, seems quite unclear right now, hopefully it'll be cleared up in the future sometime.