Research:StarRoads/26-10 journal

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[cr. 2026-10-07T20:23:51H]

Starlight is the first one to start a 'things I learned' journal, not Twilight
but she doesn't know who she's writing to
she just started writing these 'letters' to nobody in particular
she feels vaguely ashamed showing it to Twilight, knowing that Twilight is a hardworking student and will probably be better at any number of things no matter how hard she tries
Twilight looks at it and is like - huh, that's interesting, but what is it building to
Starlight doesn't really know; it's one of those 'I didn't think I'd get that far' moments
she admits she probably isn't the kind of pony that will be able to actually do anything with it
Twilight tells her not to doubt herself because this journal feels very significant
at some point Twilight starts her own journal trying to learn Starlight's method - vaguely in friendly competition


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[cr. 2026-10-07T20:23:51H]

the day that Solstice Leaves confronts the princesses
he remembers the journals.  this is part of his own set of memories that made him into an entity

the princesses are trying to rescue Twilight and Starlight out of the 'world-ending monster' ...
the princesses refuse to go into Solstice Leaves because, again, they're afraid they'll be permanently eaten

Celestia and Luna have to be banished into the sun and moon reverting to their primal manifestations they came from, a sun or moon with a mind. Cadence? she's the breath of life. so she gets banished into the crystal heart and also the dirt as the life flowing through food crops; full-on fertility deity. if there is an extra alicorn of nature she goes back into the wild areas. and this theoretically sets the scene for G5. for G5 to start all Equestria's alicorns have to be banished, although sometimes the way that happens is good and sometimes it's bad. Solstice Leaves is the only way you can do that and have a good ending.

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[cr. 2026-10-07T20:23:51H]

> Cadence? she's the breath of life
ponies are not born biologically, they're all born magically when you concentrate different elements of harmony together to create love, then the baby takes its first breath. this is why changelings kill things by 'eating love', it's that all the sapient species are magical and love is a magical process they were shaped from.
it is so awkward to explain Cadence, it's like, there is no way around the fact 'mom and dad' 'Cadence has baby' is a fundamental piece of her character and Chrysalis has to stand against the conclusion of 'Cadence has baby' by eating love which is Cadence's power. what we're clearly being told is that love is a supernatural power that forms babies. Cadence's power is conception, but magic. thankfully, the changelings eating love is evidence it _is_ magic and that neither love nor "Cadence's power" are referring to anything physical. it does actually make sense, because it connects back to the elements of harmony and why those would have a reason to exist; if the elements of harmony are channeling the power that creates ponies in the first place then of course there are elements of harmony, because that was how ponies are born and that's why they all have symbols on them as seemingly a part of their biology and sometimes those symbols are the elements of harmony. it's all the same process.
the changelings have to eat love because they were not born out of it, but all the other sapient characters were, including the griffons and all the grumpy characters.
and I guess, if the changelings interact with ponies they very slowly absorb love because the metaphor is getting sloppy and it's all feelings and stuff, but underneath that spontaneous metaphorical plot twist they are actually being charged with magic. love is an old form of magic, like I think was a quote in Harry Potter though I don't remember what part.

I think in Starry Roads Starlight is going through that process of being charged with love. she isn't being put into a dynamic by all the Equestrian ponies where she has to admit how bad she was to become better, instead her problem is that she already views herself negatively and she has to be charged with love to overcome her fearful and antagonistic behavior.

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[cr. 2026-10-07T20:23:51H]

I imagine that the powers of nature and love weren't separate originally but they started being separate once ponies existed or something like that, maybe longer ago. so the crystal heart doesn't have to exist, it's just a monument while otherwise Cadence's power would reside in the soil, and it only has to be in this particular rock because otherwise the crystal empire would be uninhabitable with its ground just covered in rock. Cadence terraformed the Crystal Empire with the crystal heart.
there might be another alicorn of untamed nature there who watches over areas like the Everfree and fights off threats to nature but is unconcerned with society. she has been persuaded to fight Solstice Leaves because unlike Celestia (and Luna even) she isn't actually all that bright and is more just full of raw power. god yeah, she has an Andalusian-looking leaf shadow pattern but is built like a Belgian draft horse. her main color is a brownish earth tone, but it's a bit like how if you watch the show a while Applejack stops looking orange and starts to look light chestnut color in relation to all the other things on screen. in "G6" she was once a rival to Cadence, sort of replacing the role of Chrysalis although the changelings or "Scarab ponies" still exist as a population within the SSSR.


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:: cr. 2026-10-07T20:23:51H