How was the Crystal Empire able to vanish?

[Vertigo_95 572]

I have been putting a lot of thought into this, but how was the Crystal Empire able to vanish? I recall from the season 3 premiere, in the beginning, the guard pony simply said "it has returned" meaning the Crystal Empire. Now going back to the season 1 premiere, Nightmare Moon had escaped her banishment. The Crystal Empire was gone for 1,000 years and Luna's banishment to the moon was also 1,000 years. But thinking about it, Nightmare Moon's escape happened first, then the Crystal Empire returned. That would mean that Luna was banished, then the Crystal Empire vanished. If that is the case, how was Luna able to help Celestia defeat Sombra when her supposed banish was to happen first?

[~Silver Essence~ 2,625]

I'm guessing due to the unhappiness and tyranny of King Sombra, it must be somewhat similar to the empire of Atlantis, a forgotten civilization similar to the crystal empire.

[AnonBrony 1,468]

Its all cuz of

MAAAAAAAAAAGGGIIIICC!

 

No but seriously 1000 years probably isn't accurate. The exact length is probably unknown and lost in time. 1000 years is probably just an estimate but no doubt the times are probably close in length. Hell maybe its only different by a few months.

[MichaelxXxTrixie 433]

I'm assuming the writers didn't think that far ahead.

 

After-all we have had production shifts in people who are making our episodes.

[Planty 1,053]

After re-watching the first bits of s3e1,

 

http://youtu.be/HoG5deDiqug?t=2m45s <--- here is the link

 

Yep, defiantly took over 1000 years ago;

 

The curse that Sombre put on it is what caused it to vanish, they don't say how it came back though just that it has (curse broken).

 

TINFOIL HAT: I think that maybe the curse took hold because Luna got banished so they didn't have the power any more to stop it. Now that she has returned, they find out that the empire has returned (the time gap is because they had to send scouts all the way to the north, and sombre kept interfering stopping them from getting to the empire). The first pony to see it was Shining Armour and Cadence because there love could break throughout the remains of his power to allow them to get to the kingdom and then they had to send a message back.

 

The 1000 years bit, well a year is a long time and with what I said it makes sense that Luna helped here then got Banished at the end of the year !

 

CONTINUITY IS SAFE!

[TheSupremeLeaderOfChaos 1,206]

You know how when we talk about things that happened around 100, 200, 300 years ago? We just say, oh yeah, 200 hundred years ago, such and such happened, when really it was 245 years ago. Same thing with the 1000 years ago thing. If that was absolutely accurate, then Nightmare Moon was banished, then Discord was defeated, and then the Crystal Empire vanished, which makes no sense since Luna was apparently present for the two latter.

 

As for how the Empire vanished, Sombra used his magic to make it disappear, so no one could rule it while he was gone. That is said in the episode itself.

[Scootalove 10,689]

The Crystal Empire was probably forgotten for a long time until the episode aired, and maybe continuity comes into mind when it comes to the 1,000 year span of Nightmare Moon's banishment and the Crystal Empire returning.

[DiscordAnarchy 770]

Within the Pony Lore

Vanishings do occur

But not by another pony

Only of one whose cruelty lures.

 

A partner Sombra may of had

With a ram who has gone mad

Grogar could be lurking within

Watching from the secret city of Tamborlien...

[Broseph 215]

King Sombra just put a giant blanket over it.

 

Or y'know, since the empire seems to run on happiness and love, and since Sombra pretty much got rid of that, the empire just ran out of juice and it disappeared?

 

Or maybe it went down to the shops, who knows?

[Castle Bleck 19,333]

Most likely, Sombra simply teleported it to the future so that, post-banishment, he could just pick up where he left off as if Celestia and Luna never interfered in the first place (of course, Shining and Cadance ended up beating him to the punch (albeit temporarily) when that day finally came).

Edited January 6, 2016 by A.V.

[Declen 118]

 

 

You know how when we talk about things that happened around 100, 200, 300 years ago? We just say, oh yeah, 200 hundred years ago, such and such happened, when really it was 245 years ago.

That's the question: do we actualy do it? Do we ever count how much time ago something had happened?

I was alvays under the impression, that we don't. If we wont to locate an event on the timeline, we either name the date, or the time period, like "in 18-th century", "in Prohibition time" or "in the Middle Age".

 

That's what alvays disturbed me in "Babylon 5": even alians used senteces like "100 of your years ago". I think, such time indicators belong to mythological timeline, where there are only two time periods: mythological past and normal modern day present. So, when they say "1000 years ago", they just mean "far, far in the past".

[TheSupremeLeaderOfChaos 1,206]

That's the question: do we actualy do it? Do we ever count how much time ago something had happened?

I was alvays under the impression, that we don't. If we wont to locate an event on the timeline, we either name the date, or the time period, like "in 18-th century", "in Prohibition time" or "in the Middle Age".

 

That's what alvays disturbed me in "Babylon 5": even alians used senteces like "100 of your years ago". I think, such time indicators belong to mythological timeline, where there are only two time periods: mythological past and normal modern day present. So, when they say "1000 years ago", they just mean "far, far in the past".

 

Hm, never thought of it like that. But yeah, that's the general gist of what I was trying to say. They don't mean a specific time, it's just that they all refer to it as 1000 years ago, making it like one of our time period names.

[Fhaolan 4,483]

Vanishing cities/regions is a popular one in mythology, especially German mythology, and shows up previously in MLP G1 (Tambelon).

 

The mythological ones show up in the musical Brigadoon, the story Germelshausen, so on and so forth. I'm vaguely aware that this idea also covers mysterious castles that appear and disappear, as well as single houses and the always fun magic shop.

[Vertigo_95 572]

Maybe I should have worded the title better because I already know how it vanished but,

 

TINFOIL HAT: I think that maybe the curse took hold because Luna got banished so they didn't have the power any more to stop it. Now that she has returned, they find out that the empire has returned (the time gap is because they had to send scouts all the way to the north, and sombre kept interfering stopping them from getting to the empire). The first pony to see it was Shining Armour and Cadence because there love could break throughout the remains of his power to allow them to get to the kingdom and then they had to send a message back.

this is a valid point, but I feel like it shouldn't have taken that long

 

No but seriously 1000 years probably isn't accurate. The exact length is probably unknown and lost in time. 1000 years is probably just an estimate but no doubt the times are probably close in length. Hell maybe its only different by a few months.

This is actually what I had thought, but like a year or two, by the fact that two winter episodes had aired and since the series began. I also think that when the Crystal Empire vanished, it could have been during the time Luna was growing resentful to Celestia which would mean that the events happened in the reverse order than the way I thought they were in. It just doesn't seem right that it happened in the order that it did.

[Super Derpy 535]

I think some very powerful magic was put on the Crystal Empire causing it to disappear (Probably Sombra who did it). And maybe the spell just broke down overtime until the Crystal Empire finally reappeared.

[RiseofSpectrum 359]

If I was allowed to answer this question shortly, then I would just say: PLOT.

 

The writers clearly didn't think that far ahead. Hell, if you think about it, King Sombra is pretty bland and generic for a villain. At least the other ones had either a reason for it (Nightmare Moon, Chrysalis), or were interesting (Discord). In other words, they just needed a Grand Season Opener so they created a Kingdom (who is in reality an Equestrian puppet state) and a villain to rise up the scale of the episode.

[CT-1138 3,182]

I always assumed that some kind of long forgotten dark magic was used by Sombra to make the city literally vanish. If he couldn't have it, nopony could and the entire city simply was gone, poof! It would be as if the city never existed in the first place, and it would be left to something of pony lore, only discussed as a legend.

Edited August 31, 2013 by Dinos4Ever

[cuteycindyhoney 13,306]

I have been putting a lot of thought into this, but how was the Crystal Empire able to vanish? I recall from the season 3 premiere, in the beginning, the guard pony simply said "it has returned" meaning the Crystal Empire. Now going back to the season 1 premiere, Nightmare Moon had escaped her banishment. The Crystal Empire was gone for 1,000 years and Luna's banishment to the moon was also 1,000 years. But thinking about it, Nightmare Moon's escape happened first, then the Crystal Empire returned. That would mean that Luna was banished, then the Crystal Empire vanished. If that is the case, how was Luna able to help Celestia defeat Sombra when her supposed banish was to happen first?

ONE: One thousand years is used as a round-robin number, basically as a sort of storybook "Long ago".

TWO: If you're going to question the Crystal Empire vanishing, why aren't you questioning Celestia raising the sun?

[RainbowDashie 767]

We're talking about a show with magical ponies that do their shit with magic and fly around doing weather and stuff, how do you uestion it? Anyway, an answer

 

 

[Mywas 687]

Sombra was cheap shotted by the princesses so before he turn completely into shadows he banished the empire until recently.

 

If I was allowed to answer this question shortly, then I would just say: PLOT.

 

The writers clearly didn't think that far ahead. Hell, if you think about it, King Sombra is pretty bland and generic for a villain. At least the other ones had either a reason for it (Nightmare Moon, Chrysalis), or were interesting (Discord). In other words, they just needed a Grand Season Opener so they created a Kingdom (who is in reality an Equestrian puppet state) and a villain to rise up the scale of the episode.

*Cough*Sauron*Cough*

[Sergios117 192]

It's fantasy bro, magic will be the answer to everything.

 

If you were to take it to a rational case, then it is likely that Sombra encased the empire in a pocket dimension of some sort by breaking into 4th dimensional space which we mere 3 dimensional beings can not observe.

[Castle Bleck 19,333]

If I was allowed to answer this question shortly, then I would just say: PLOT.

 

The writers clearly didn't think that far ahead. Hell, if you think about it, King Sombra is pretty bland and generic for a villain. At least the other ones had either a reason for it (Nightmare Moon, Chrysalis), or were interesting (Discord). In other words, they just needed a Grand Season Opener so they created a Kingdom (who is in reality an Equestrian puppet state) and a villain to rise up the scale of the episode.

1. Sombra most likely just teleported the Empire to the future. Is it really that hard to figure out?

 

2. That's your interpretation of him; mine is that he's an enigmatic bad@$$ who uses very Crazy-Prepared curses and traps for a near-victory.

 

P.S.: If there's any "bland and generic" villain here, it's Sunset Shimmer.

Edited January 6, 2016 by A.V.

[pinkiefan1287 610]

There was a show that gave a great line about a thousand years and explained why it was called a thousand years.

 

 

As for the order, most likely the Crystal Empire was sealed first and than Luna turned into Nightmare Moon. I like to think after the battle with Sombra, Luna was infected by his darkness. 

 

Another idea is that, Celestia was able to predict when Luna would come back, but they did not know what spell Sombra used, so they just guessed.

Edited August 31, 2013 by pinkiefan1287