My Little Pony XXXIX: There is no Pegasus Mafia!

[MCerberus]

I think you're supposed to use a tooth brush... wait that's just for Colgate I think.

[Gamerlord]

Happy birthday DBC!

[Athaniar]

Aaaargh so many spoiler tags that I can't read yet. Sounds like people were pretty happy with it this week, though.

Also, thanks to everyone for the birthday well wishes.

Happy Birthday to you, and also Colonel Fedora, if I remember correctly!

[Tiki Snakes]

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Was good.
Managed to find time to watch it inbetween saving the galaxy and work. Which puts sleep at 4th highest priority right now.
Save Galaxy, Pony, Work, Sleep if any time left in day.

I regret nothing.
It was good poni.

[RdMarquis]

Aaaargh so many spoiler tags that I can't read yet. Sounds like people were pretty happy with it this week, though.

Also, thanks to everyone for the birthday well wishes.

Happy birthday!

Hmm. Ah. I see then. Well, that's only mildly upsetting. I think there is really one rational response to this revelation, no?

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Is it strange that I find her expression adorable?

[Kairaven]

a public service announcement for those in countries that don't have daylight savings time.

starting Next week episodes will be shown one hour earlier.

[erikun]

Aaaargh so many spoiler tags that I can't read yet. Sounds like people were pretty happy with it this week, though.

Also, thanks to everyone for the birthday well wishes.

Happy Birthday, to you and the other person who I forgot. Sorry.

Have some cake!

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In Pinkamena Russia, Cake eat you!

[Gadora]

Aaaargh so many spoiler tags that I can't read yet. Sounds like people were pretty happy with it this week, though.

Also, thanks to everyone for the birthday well wishes.

Happy birthday bobcat!

I'm guessing because of the nature of Vietnamese-mass-manufactured-plastic-toys, this happened with everyone, but when I received my Fluttershy happy meal toy, she had her tail wrapped around her back leg, which I found kind of fitting for her character. I mean, like, being nervous, and kind of a pony equivalent to twirling hair because of it.

Okay, but, uh, real question here. I'm new to pony toys. Is there a guide or FAQ I can read on this whole "Brushy" thing?

Wish I could link to a guide, but I can confirm that the AJ and Lily Blossom I picked up today are both the same. :3

[Pokonic]

Is it strange that I find her expression adorable?

Why yes. I personaly find it moderatly creepy. However, it still is better than half of twilights crazy faces.



Speaking of that, anyone know of any shopped ponies with Twilights Lesson Zero faces? That would be great.

[Dexam]

Yay, thread catch-up time! Post-new episode is always so busy.

Once again, too much to individually quote, so have some thoughts on It's About Time:

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M. A. Larson once again shows why they are one of my favourite (if not the favourite) pony episode writers. All manners of awesome, lots of humour, nice pacing, and the characterisations well handled.

Random thoughts, in no particular order:
- Spike has the best dreams.
- Oh Twilight Sparkle! You're so OCDorakble! In the time you spent worrying about when to make your scheduling changes, you could have made your scheduling changes. Twilight is perhaps one of the best examples of high Int/low Wis I've seen in a long while.
- Pinkie making Fluttershy carry all the heavy party supplies? Fluttershy, you really need to stop being such a doormat and be more assertive. Hmmm, maybe there's an episode idea in that...
- Pinkie (calmly): "Now everypony follow my lead." (screaming and panicking)
- Cerberus! Return of the giant monsters! MLP needs more of this. Fluttershy is best monster wrangler ever.
- "It's just a lost dog poster." I laughed so hard at this.
- Madam Pinkie is best Gypsy pony.
- Twilight is a falling object magnet, but only when Pinkie is around? This is highly suspicious. Further proof of the "Pinkie Pie is actually twins" theory?
- Pinkie has everything stashed all over Ponyville for any kind of possible emergency.
- Stealth suits for everypony! (And dragon!)
- Canterlot night watch ponies! They just look so awesome.
- I just love how everypony is so unsurprised at Twilight trying to "break in" to the Canterlot Archives.

New random headcannon / ideas regarding pony history (contains new episode spoilers):

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We have the story of Hearth's Warming Eve, which shows the founding of Equestria by the various pony tribes, and perhaps more importantly the discovery of Friendship Magic that requires the presence of all three tribes of ponykind.

Following the founding of Equestria, the ponytribes migrate to the new country, with the unicorns settling Canterlot, the earth ponies settling Manehattan, and the pegasi settling Cloudsdale.

The unicorns finish the basics of Canterlot first, as they are able to utilise more magic for construction.

Starswirl the Bearded, being Clover the Clever's mentor, immediately begins research into this new school of Friendship Magic. This leads to the discovery of the Amniomorphic Spell, which allows for any pony to be reborn with the traits of all three pony kinds: Celestia, the first of the alicorns, is born. Due to the powerful nature of the spell, it can only be performed a few times per generation, leading to Luna being born as the younger sister. Being living, seemingly immortal representatives of all of ponykind, Celestia and Luna are declared rulers of Equestria; but the possibility of other worthy ponies being raised to alicorn status exists. To prevent complaints of unfairness, a seat of government for the two sisters is established in what later becomes the Everfree Forest.

Starswirl continues his research into Friendship Magic and creates the Elements of Harmony. Celestia and Luna use the Elements to clear Equestria of the worst of the monsters, sealing them in Tartarus.

One monster, Discord, grows angry at the order (lack of chaos) being established in Equestria, and takes control of ponykind in revenge. Discord proves impossible to imprison in Tartarus with the other monsters, leading Celestia and Luna to imprison him in a stone statue instead. As a final countermeasure before being imprisoned, Discord taints Luna with jealousy and imbues her with additional dark powers, leading to the rise of Nightmare Moon.

Upon command by Celestia, Starswirl the Bearded conducts research into time travel magic in the hope of finding some way to prevent Luna becoming tainted with chaos. He discovers a spell that will allow a pony to travel back in time for a few seconds, and once only. Experiments show that it is impossible to change the past/future, but information can be passed to influence events.

Nightmare Moon declares herself ruler of Equestria, halting the sun and moon and starting the night eternal. Celestia, weaker than Nightmare Moon, flees the castle of the Princesses in the Everfree, taking the Elements of Harmony with her. She pleads with Nightmare Moon to release her control over the sun and moon, to no avail.

At this point, Future!Celestia appears before Celestia, informing her that she must use the Elements of Harmony against her own sister and banish her to the moon. However, she must also use their power to set the stars in motion to allow Nightmare Moon's escape in exactly 1000 years of the Summer Sun Celebration. She is also informed to take proteges in preparation for Nightmare Moon's return, and it is vitally important that those proteges make some friends. Past!Celestia does as instructed, and the Elements fall inert after being used against one of their weilders. Celestia leaves the inert Elements in the Everfree castle and moves the seat of government to Canterlot.

Wait. I understand everything. The fans are wrong about Derpy. When not helping friends move she

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Runs the mystery joke shop next to SCC (speaking of which, have we decided on a name for it. I think "Pranks & Tanks" was mentioned in where Pinkie gets her cannons

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I was the one who suggested "Pranks & Tanks" as the name of the combination joke shop and military supplies store. I also proposed that it was owned/run by Screwball and Loose Screw, though it's entirely possible that Derpy works there too. Hmmm, if Derpy runs the delivery service for Pranks & Tanks, that explains how Twilight was able to survive being hit on the head with a dropped anvil: it was a joke rubber anvil!

[Thanqol]

I coloured some of SiuiS' lineart.

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[Zevox]

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Eh, this one was alright. Honestly though, it kind of feels like the lesser cousin of Lesson Zero. We saw Twilight's OCD and irrational side to a much more over-the-top degree there, so here it just seems tame in comparison. Not that some of it wasn't amusing, but it would have been more so if it had come before Lesson Zero, not after. As a result, Pinkie pretty much stole the episode for me. Heck, I think she was funnier here than in many of her own episodes.

Cerberus adds an interesting bit of information to the series I've gotta say though - evil monsters trapped in Tartarus eh? Guess the world isn't entirely happy-go-lucky after all.

Zevox

[thubby]

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Eh, this one was alright. Honestly though, it kind of feels like the lesser cousin of Lesson Zero. We saw Twilight's OCD and irrational side to a much more over-the-top degree there, so here it just seems tame in comparison. Not that some of it wasn't amusing, but it would have been more so if it had come before Lesson Zero, not after. As a result, Pinkie pretty much stole the episode for me. Heck, I think she was funnier here than in many of her own episodes.

Cerberus adds an interesting bit of information to the series I've gotta say though - evil monsters trapped in Tartarus eh? Guess the world isn't entirely happy-go-lucky after all.

Zevox

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i actually noticed something similar about the entire season. we've seen a lot of these stories told in S1

[Anarion]

Aaaargh so many spoiler tags that I can't read yet. Sounds like people were pretty happy with it this week, though.

Also, thanks to everyone for the birthday well wishes.

I've still got 20 minutes in the Pacific time zone! Happy birthday! *Huff* *Puff*

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I am okay with this.

Hmm. Ah. I see then. Well, that's only mildly upsetting. I think there is really one rational response to this revelation, no?

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Less okay with this. I like sleeping. *whimper*

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Eh, this one was alright. Honestly though, it kind of feels like the lesser cousin of Lesson Zero. We saw Twilight's OCD and irrational side to a much more over-the-top degree there, so here it just seems tame in comparison. Not that some of it wasn't amusing, but it would have been more so if it had come before Lesson Zero, not after. As a result, Pinkie pretty much stole the episode for me. Heck, I think she was funnier here than in many of her own episodes.

Cerberus adds an interesting bit of information to the series I've gotta say though - evil monsters trapped in Tartarus eh? Guess the world isn't entirely happy-go-lucky after all.

Zevox

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Interesting. I took the episode the complete other way. That is, since it came after Lesson Zero and Twilight didn't go over the top panicking here, we see a certain amount of character growth from Twilight. Hopefully, the writers even keep this episode in mind for the future and at some point show Twilight taking a more relaxed attitude towards an upcoming problem. It's the kind of lesson that's easy to speak but hard to put into practice, and I could easily see Twilight continuing to freak out about things and sort of catching herself doing it for a while before actually being able to be more relaxed naturally.

[darthbobcat]

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Eh, this one was alright. Honestly though, it kind of feels like the lesser cousin of Lesson Zero. We saw Twilight's OCD and irrational side to a much more over-the-top degree there, so here it just seems tame in comparison. Not that some of it wasn't amusing, but it would have been more so if it had come before Lesson Zero, not after. As a result, Pinkie pretty much stole the episode for me. Heck, I think she was funnier here than in many of her own episodes.

Cerberus adds an interesting bit of information to the series I've gotta say though - evil monsters trapped in Tartarus eh? Guess the world isn't entirely happy-go-lucky after all.

Zevox

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As someone who counts Lesson Zero as part of the three way tie for least favorite episode, (Owl's Well That Ends Well and Putting Your Hoof Down, for the record), this one was sorta like Lesson Zero done right... but it still wasn't especially great. It had good moments sprinkled throughout, and I agree about Pinkie being the best part of it. If I had one wish, it would be that future Twilight was trying to get past Twilight to stop Spike from eating all that ice cream.

Though I couldn't help but wish that Future Twilight would have this to say when she got back.

"Celestia's horn, is THAT how I come off to everyone? I need to read some books on social interaction."

Though I think the biggest problem with the episode was with what wasn't there: I wish the episode had been about them getting Cerberus back to Tartarus. It was nice to see Fluttershy in her element, though.

My feelings, to quote Milhouse: "When are they going to get to the fireworks factory!?"

So I'd give this episode, on the Pony Scale (best episodes are 10, worst are 1 or possibly 0, like SFdebris' reviews, each relative to their own series), I'd give this one a 4 or a 5.

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes, and the Sweetie Belle birthday pic gift was awesome.

[Kindablue]

Happy birthday, Bobcat! I pretty much disagree with you completely about the last episode and I pretty much agree with you completely about this one.

[Deadly]

Happy birthday bobcat!

New random headcannon / ideas regarding pony history (contains new episode spoilers):

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We have the story of Hearth's Warming Eve, which shows the founding of Equestria by the various pony tribes, and perhaps more importantly the discovery of Friendship Magic that requires the presence of all three tribes of ponykind.

Following the founding of Equestria, the ponytribes migrate to the new country, with the unicorns settling Canterlot, the earth ponies settling Manehattan, and the pegasi settling Cloudsdale.

The unicorns finish the basics of Canterlot first, as they are able to utilise more magic for construction.

Starswirl the Bearded, being Clover the Clever's mentor, immediately begins research into this new school of Friendship Magic. This leads to the discovery of the Amniomorphic Spell, which allows for any pony to be reborn with the traits of all three pony kinds: Celestia, the first of the alicorns, is born. Due to the powerful nature of the spell, it can only be performed a few times per generation, leading to Luna being born as the younger sister. Being living, seemingly immortal representatives of all of ponykind, Celestia and Luna are declared rulers of Equestria; but the possibility of other worthy ponies being raised to alicorn status exists. To prevent complaints of unfairness, a seat of government for the two sisters is established in what later becomes the Everfree Forest.

Starswirl continues his research into Friendship Magic and creates the Elements of Harmony. Celestia and Luna use the Elements to clear Equestria of the worst of the monsters, sealing them in Tartarus.

One monster, Discord, grows angry at the order (lack of chaos) being established in Equestria, and takes control of ponykind in revenge. Discord proves impossible to imprison in Tartarus with the other monsters, leading Celestia and Luna to imprison him in a stone statue instead. As a final countermeasure before being imprisoned, Discord taints Luna with jealousy and imbues her with additional dark powers, leading to the rise of Nightmare Moon.

Upon command by Celestia, Starswirl the Bearded conducts research into time travel magic in the hope of finding some way to prevent Luna becoming tainted with chaos. He discovers a spell that will allow a pony to travel back in time for a few seconds, and once only. Experiments show that it is impossible to change the past/future, but information can be passed to influence events.

Nightmare Moon declares herself ruler of Equestria, halting the sun and moon and starting the night eternal. Celestia, weaker than Nightmare Moon, flees the castle of the Princesses in the Everfree, taking the Elements of Harmony with her. She pleads with Nightmare Moon to release her control over the sun and moon, to no avail.

At this point, Future!Celestia appears before Celestia, informing her that she must use the Elements of Harmony against her own sister and banish her to the moon. However, she must also use their power to set the stars in motion to allow Nightmare Moon's escape in exactly 1000 years of the Summer Sun Celebration. She is also informed to take proteges in preparation for Nightmare Moon's return, and it is vitally important that those proteges make some friends. Past!Celestia does as instructed, and the Elements fall inert after being used against one of their weilders. Celestia leaves the inert Elements in the Everfree castle and moves the seat of government to Canterlot.

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Interesting bits in there. But in Return of Harmony, Celestia says that it was Luna and herself who discovered the Elements. At least that's how I'd interpret "so after discovering the Elements of Harmony", unless you think they discovered the magic and Starswirl... created the necklaces/crown thingies. Or something.

I'm not sure what to make of the idea that Celestia and Luna were made through magic, either. I've never been completely happy with that thought. I still maintain that Celestia is an obvious Gandalf in Dumbledore's horseshoes. Or a Dumbledore with Gandalf's origin. She even has the pet phoenix.

E20, something else about a certain place

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So Tartarus is a prison for evil creatures, but we know that neither NMM nor Discord were thrown in there. Not even Discord's statue was put there (seems to me like a better place than the royal garden). Combined with how easily Cerberus was dealt with and how not-seriously Twilight took the prospect of dealing with it, this suggests that Tartarus is only for "minor" evils. Like... criminals rather than big and powerful monsters. So probably no ancient dragons or ursa majors in there, but lots and lots of insane dead pony spirits.

Come to think of it, the level of "discord" down there must be huge... that's no doubt why the statue was not put there but in the royal garden where Celestia thought there would be more harmony and peace.

[DigoDragon]

Its About time Thought:

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It was a decent episode. Pinkie definitely stole the show and I loved how the guards were totally nonchalant with Twi being there.
I came up with a funny thought that could make the episode better--

Set it so that at the end, Twilight learns not to worry about the problem that has apparently not come just like the episode goes, but then she forgets all about her visit from future twilight. Therefore she accidently creates a time paradox and *THAT* becomes the danger that threatens all of Equestria.

Therefore, her worry about the future and gonig back in time to warn herself (That whatever she does, she must go back in time on Tuesaday) is necessary to keep the loop stable. It has a Dr Who (Dr Whooves?) flavor to it I think. Might have made it a little more interesting.
It could also muddle up the lesson to be learned which I think would add amusement.

[SlyGuyMcFly]

Happy birthday bobcat!

E20, something else about a certain place

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Come to think of it, the level of "discord" down there must be huge... that's no doubt why the statue was not put there but in the royal garden where Celestia thought there would be more harmony and peace.

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That makes mucho sense-o. I think you'd find stuff like Ursas and Minota-

wait.


Iron Will kept being called a monster, despite being a pretty personable chap. Can it be that "monster" is a thing, like "pony"? A sort of biological classification: there's ponies, animals and monsters. Only since ponies are the ones making the clasification they sorta dumped everything they didn't like into the "monster" bin, much to the annoyance of more reasonable/civilised creatures like Minotaurs?

I'm not even sure where I'm going with this, it's just something that occured to me on the spot.

[Soras Teva Gee]

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That makes mucho sense-o. I think you'd find stuff like Ursas and Minota-

wait.


Iron Will kept being called a monster, despite being a pretty personable chap. Can it be that "monster" is a thing, like "pony"? A sort of biological classification: there's ponies, animals and monsters. Only since ponies are the ones making the clasification they sorta dumped everything they didn't like into the "monster" bin, much to the annoyance of more reasonable/civilised creatures like Minotaurs?

I'm not even sure where I'm going with this, it's just something that occured to me on the spot.

Since nothing in there involves spoilers I won't use them. Too many damn spoilers in this thread.

Anyways there's some simple resolutions to last week's "monster vs minotaur" idea. One would be that a monster is properly a one off creature of some kind and just that the ponies weren't familiar with Minotaurs, so help me we didn't see Twilight get in on that action and nopony else can make a Lore/Knowledge check worth a damn reliably. Second would be a social designation between "creatures we can interact peacefully with" and "creatures we cannot interact peacefully with" which rather fits the tone of the episode. Or third as you say, simply an arbitrary social definition, that we probably shouldn't take too seriously

[Forum Explorer]

Since nothing in there involves spoilers I won't use them. Too many damn spoilers in this thread.

Anyways there's some simple resolutions to last week's "monster vs minotaur" idea. One would be that a monster is properly a one off creature of some kind and just that the ponies weren't familiar with Minotaurs, so help me we didn't see Twilight get in on that action and nopony else can make a Lore/Knowledge check worth a damn reliably. Second would be a social designation between "creatures we can interact peacefully with" and "creatures we cannot interact peacefully with" which rather fits the tone of the episode. Or third as you say, simply an arbitrary social definition, that we probably shouldn't take too seriously

Well we didn't see anypony calling Gilda a monster. However it seems clear that it was thought of disrespectful to call Iron Will a monster instead of a Minotaur.

Though these were the ponies who freaked out about Zecora and a bunny stampede. They don't handle strange very well (though they seem to be getting better)

[Mewtarthio]

E20, something else about a certain place

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So Tartarus is a prison for evil creatures, but we know that neither NMM nor Discord were thrown in there. Not even Discord's statue was put there (seems to me like a better place than the royal garden). Combined with how easily Cerberus was dealt with and how not-seriously Twilight took the prospect of dealing with it, this suggests that Tartarus is only for "minor" evils. Like... criminals rather than big and powerful monsters. So probably no ancient dragons or ursa majors in there, but lots and lots of insane dead pony spirits.

Come to think of it, the level of "discord" down there must be huge... that's no doubt why the statue was not put there but in the royal garden where Celestia thought there would be more harmony and peace.

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Discord and Nightmare Moon are both special cases. Discord is extremely powerful; I doubt Tartarus could hold him. The only way to stop him (temporarily) is to seal him in stone. They could throw Discord's statue in there, but, as you noted, he'd wake up pretty quickly with all the chaos and evil in that place. Nightmare Moon, on the other hand, is Celestia's sister: Even her most callous fanon interpretations would hesitate before throwing her into hell. Plus, she is hoping to reform Luna eventually; whatever prison she chooses, it has to be something she can get someone out of later.

[Forum Explorer]

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Discord and Nightmare Moon are both special cases. Discord is extremely powerful; I doubt Tartarus could hold him. The only way to stop him (temporarily) is to seal him in stone. They could throw Discord's statue in there, but, as you noted, he'd wake up pretty quickly with all the chaos and evil in that place. Nightmare Moon, on the other hand, is Celestia's sister: Even her most callous fanon interpretations would hesitate before throwing her into hell. Plus, she is hoping to reform Luna eventually; whatever prison she chooses, it has to be something she can get someone out of later.

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Twilight was confidant she could beat Cerebus. Somehow I think Nightmare Moon and Discord are more powerful then her. I imagine that while the creatures in Tartarus are dangerous they aren't on the same level.

Plus they are unambiogously evil creatures. So things that are bascially wild but dangerous animals (i.e. Ursa Majors, Cockatrice and Manticores) aren't included. So the prisoners are likely intelligent and willfully destructive/corruptive. Or can only exist off ponies suffering like the Windegos

Hey I think we know what's on the other side of the Everfree! Its Tartarus!

[Anarion]

E20, something else about a certain place

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So Tartarus is a prison for evil creatures, but we know that neither NMM nor Discord were thrown in there. Not even Discord's statue was put there (seems to me like a better place than the royal garden). Combined with how easily Cerberus was dealt with and how not-seriously Twilight took the prospect of dealing with it, this suggests that Tartarus is only for "minor" evils. Like... criminals rather than big and powerful monsters. So probably no ancient dragons or ursa majors in there, but lots and lots of insane dead pony spirits.

Come to think of it, the level of "discord" down there must be huge... that's no doubt why the statue was not put there but in the royal garden where Celestia thought there would be more harmony and peace.

Also not using spoilers, as I don't need to mention the specific place. I don't think that either Nightmare Moon or Discord qualify as out and out evil. Discord comes close, but he's more about pure chaos and only acted in an evil manner to prevent himself from instantly being turned back into stone. Nightmare Moon again was not really evil so much as corrupted by Luna's sadness and heavily overreacting, plus she was redeemable and it's quite likely Celestia knew she was redeemable.

Since nothing in there involves spoilers I won't use them. Too many damn spoilers in this thread.

Anyways there's some simple resolutions to last week's "monster vs minotaur" idea. One would be that a monster is properly a one off creature of some kind and just that the ponies weren't familiar with Minotaurs, so help me we didn't see Twilight get in on that action and nopony else can make a Lore/Knowledge check worth a damn reliably. Second would be a social designation between "creatures we can interact peacefully with" and "creatures we cannot interact peacefully with" which rather fits the tone of the episode. Or third as you say, simply an arbitrary social definition, that we probably shouldn't take too seriously

Well Fluttershy has shown familiarity with various exotic creatures as well such as the cockatrice and she was the one who knew she was dealing with a minotaur as well. So she appears to be well-trained in some of her knowledge skills as well.

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Twilight was confidant she could beat Cerebus. Somehow I think Nightmare Moon and Discord are more powerful then her. I imagine that while the creatures in Tartarus are dangerous they aren't on the same level.

Plus they are unambiogously evil creatures. So things that are bascially wild but dangerous animals (i.e. Ursa Majors, Cockatrice and Manticores) aren't included. So the prisoners are likely intelligent and willfully destructive/corruptive. Or can only exist off ponies suffering like the Windegos

Hey I think we know what's on the other side of the Everfree! Its Tartarus!

Having just disagreed with part of this above, I'll make another note. I definitely agree that Nightmare Moon and Discord are more powerful than Twilight individually, and that might be significant for the locations where they were imprisoned. However, I don't think they were unambiguously evil as I noted above. Although I add that I would probably give Nightmare Moon the Lawful Evil or Neutral Evil alignment during her corruption, but the fact that regular Luna was still in there does change things significantly.

[Eakin]

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Twilight was confidant she could beat Cerebus. Somehow I think Nightmare Moon and Discord are more powerful then her. I imagine that while the creatures in Tartarus are dangerous they aren't on the same level.

Plus they are unambiogously evil creatures. So things that are bascially wild but dangerous animals (i.e. Ursa Majors, Cockatrice and Manticores) aren't included. So the prisoners are likely intelligent and willfully destructive/corruptive. Or can only exist off ponies suffering like the Windegos

Hey I think we know what's on the other side of the Everfree! Its Tartarus!

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Actually I think you could make a compelling case for Tartarus being in the Everfree forest. Twilight sure looked like she'd been walking through a forest when she returned, and it would have to close enough that she could walk there and back on the same day. Even if she teleported home I doubt she stayed anywhere overnight with Cerberus.

Have there been any PMVs from the Disney version of Hercules popping up since the episode?

[TheAmishPirate]

new episode sorta

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Twilight was confidant she could beat Cerebus. Somehow I think Nightmare Moon and Discord are more powerful then her. I imagine that while the creatures in Tartarus are dangerous they aren't on the same level.

Plus they are unambiogously evil creatures. So things that are bascially wild but dangerous animals (i.e. Ursa Majors, Cockatrice and Manticores) aren't included. So the prisoners are likely intelligent and willfully destructive/corruptive. Or can only exist off ponies suffering like the Windegos

Hey I think we know what's on the other side of the Everfree! Its Tartarus!

Still sorta new episode.

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That would explain a lot of the wildness of the Everfree. Perhaps Tartarus is a place that contains such evils, but their influence (combined with the ancient palace and misuse of the Elements) is what keeps the place running without pony intervention. The lack of pony intervention means dangerous creatures run wild, instead of being properly taken care of. Perhaps the creatures that are there are warped to be a bit nastier as well.

Crazy Theory: Zecora is a reformed previous inhabitant of Tartarus. Thoughts?

[Forum Explorer]

Still sorta new episode.

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That would explain a lot of the wildness of the Everfree. Perhaps Tartarus is a place that contains such evils, but their influence (combined with the ancient palace and misuse of the Elements) is what keeps the place running without pony intervention. The lack of pony intervention means dangerous creatures run wild, instead of being properly taken care of. Perhaps the creatures that are there are warped to be a bit nastier as well.

Crazy Theory: Zecora is a reformed previous inhabitant of Tartarus. Thoughts?

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Perhaps but zebras are said to come from a far away land. Twilight would have been more freaked out if it was true. Now if Zecora as a individual was imprisoned and redeemed I supposed is possible but I doubt it.

I like the above idea though.

[Tiki Snakes]

Still sorta new episode.

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That would explain a lot of the wildness of the Everfree. Perhaps Tartarus is a place that contains such evils, but their influence (combined with the ancient palace and misuse of the Elements) is what keeps the place running without pony intervention. The lack of pony intervention means dangerous creatures run wild, instead of being properly taken care of. Perhaps the creatures that are there are warped to be a bit nastier as well.

Crazy Theory: Zecora is a reformed previous inhabitant of Tartarus. Thoughts?

Crazy Theory Addendum;

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Zebra really don't have cutie marks.
The symbol on Zecora's flank is a prison tattoo.
Question is, what does it represent? Gang affiliation, crime committed or time done?

"In Tartarus Prison I spent several long years.
And in that dreadful place, I aquired new fears.
The fiends in that dungeon said that I would soon hang,
So to save my dear life I joined a violent street gang.
To become one of them I shivved a Griffon in the dark.
And that little ponies, is how I earned my cutie mark."

[Mewtarthio]

Still sorta new episode.

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Crazy Theory: Zecora is a reformed previous inhabitant of Tartarus. Thoughts?

S2E20...ish

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Hasbro would catch no end of flak if the only African-Equestrian on the show turned out to be an escaped convict. From hell.

As for what's inside Tartarus: I'd be pretty disappointed if it was just a maximum-security prison that happened to have a three-headed guard dog. I do agree that the stuff inside is probably on a lower threat tier than Discord or Nightmare Moon, though. Unless Tartarus is located in some sort of parallel null-magic demiplane, I can't imagine it holding something with their powers, even aside from Celestia's emotional reluctance to inflict that on her sister (Discord is totally evil, though).

I still wouldn't say that "weaker than Twilight" is the upper limit of Tartarian strength. The ability to defeat Cerberus in a straight fight does not necessarily imply the ability to escape Tartarus. It could be that, for instance, Cerberus is really there to keep people on the outside from helping prisoners escape. It's also possible that the environment itself is hostile to prisoners (say, through magical curses, various traps near the entrance, or a dedicated "Warden" genius loci), so that someone trying to attack Cerberus from the inside would have a much tougher job than someone attacking from the outside.

By the way, where did this "What's on the other side of the Everfree Forest?" meme come from? Surely you could just go around it, no?

[Tectonic Robot]

Happy birthday, DarthBobCat.

Did Lixie ever finish her fancy ship-ficlet thingy, or is that still in the works?

*Has not been keeping up with ponythread*