Disclaimer. I have had nothing to do with this animation nor do I have anything to do with MLP. I'm just a casual fan and will be basing my analysis off of my own opinions, likes and dislikes, and based off of what I know about the show.
So let's get right into this and start talking about the animation since it's pretty much what you came here for. The animation itself for being over 3 years old is very good although you can see at times just how stiff some of the characters can be especially towards the end when Luna kind of gets thrown around like a rag doll and bounces off the floor but her body itself doesn't actually seem to move period the same effect of taking a picture from Google and bouncing up and down your desktop. With that being said I have always enjoyed silly filly Studios animations and I really wish they would pump out more content more frequently as it's kind of a shame to see such a good animation team slowly fading into the Forgotten void.
Voice acting and dialogue. Now for me this is where I am the most impressed, The Voice actresses that were used to play the role of Celestia and Luna are pretty spot-on to the original voice actress counterparts from the show. And the dialogue is pretty convincing as well. Although some of the dialogue is pretty cliche especially when Luna transforms into Nightmare Moon for a moment and we have dialogue between her and Sombra. Where Sombra is asking what are you and of course Nightmare Moon replies I'm a nightmare. It's not a terrible cliche but it gets even worse with some the other lines that Sombra says.
I feed off your anger and it's exquisite
Now you know we only primarily get growls from Sombra in the show but I really wish he wouldn't sound as rapey as he does in this animation. And of course you have and laughing it every time he gets hurt by Celestia but practically wets himself when he's being fought by Luna and Nightmare Moon.
The story. the story that this animation takes place in takes place a thousand years ago when Celestia and Luna are trying to take the Crystal Empire from Sombra. I do like the foreshadowing that Luna sets up in the beginning when she questions whether or not the Elements of Harmony are going to work, as if she already has an idea that her bond with her sister isn't as strong as it should be or potentially was.
The two princesses then proceed storm through a stained glass window with their silhouettes being revealed by the light behind them and the imagery is really nice. The fight precedes as to be expected but what's really unique is that instead of just seeing the MLP signature Alicorn lazarbeam death, we get to see the princesses in their own unique armor and sporting weapons, a spare for Celestia and a sword for Luna.
As cool as that is Sombra proceeds the talk to Celestia about how even the Gods seem to be flawed and I can't help but laugh at this because if I really believe that Celestia and Luna were gods that I don't necessarily believe that they would need these weapons to begin with and I would prefer to go back to the Alicorn lazarbeam and just be rid of Sombra.
On the flip side of things we get to see some very unique Magic casted from both parties but primarily Luna as the animation tends to focus more on her and Sombra than it does Celestia, we get to see Luna fight with these magically created swords and Spears as well as using glyphs to accelerate her movement and teleport her around the castle that they're fighting it. Very similar to the way some magic is used in RWBY.
and again this is a love-hate thing with me because as much as I love these combat spells actually existing and being used in this animation, the show is still design for children so I don't believe we're ever going to see anywhere close to something of this magnitude.
Now talking about Sombra for a minute, there's a moment where Celestia talks to Sombra about not caring what dark packs he may have made. And whit what little I know from the comics is that there is a moment in Sombra's storyline were that Sombra does at some point in time gets revived and becomes a shadow Pony which is nice seeing how that adds up to the pony of Shadows that gets revealed at the season 7 finale. Now as for whether or not he is supposed to be resurrected before or after the fall of the Crystal Empire, that I don't know so it can be seen as a minor plot hole in terms of what is secondary Cannon for Sombra himself. On a side note I like that Sombra in this animation proceeds to say that he has more respect for Luna then he does Celestia. As if being able to see the power that lies inside of Luna and knows already that Celestia is at one point or another going to turn on Luna, foreshadowing Celestial using the Elements of Harmony to banish her to the Moon. Now as for what follows after this I'm not necessarily a fan of.
After Sombra fails to recruit Luna, Luna proceeds to go on about how Sombra only has a small fraction of what the Shadows can offer considering she fights them every single night. Now you might be thinking, Echo why do you have a problem with this? It sounds really cool. Although it does sound cool they pretty much show in the animation that Luna and Nightmare are already one being at this point and again from what I know about the comics is that the nightmare and Luna are two separate beings and Luna does at some point get possessed by the nightmare but without knowing when and where this actually takes place because the show itself doesn't tell us and we don't actually see her get possessed by the nightmare in this animation she just seems to kind of tap into its power, I would really like to have seen more of the potential fall of Luna in this animation. so it kind of belittles the point that she fights off the shadows and the nightmare every night only to allow herself to give into it later on in the series.
At the very end of this animation Celestia wakes up to discover that Luna has defeated Sombra however Luna's wording makes it seem as though she has killed him and as Luna proceeds to hint that it was due to her that the Crystal Empire has vanished Celestia course interrupts her and just kind of makes me feel bad, talking about terrible power and how ultimately this fight was a loss. We also give a brief glimpse of Luna's eyes which of course is just more foreshadowing about what will happen in the future.
all in all I would give this a 7 out of 10 rating and of course if you like this animation be sure to check out the rest of the videos done by silly filly Studios and let me know what fanfiction, animation, or something else MLP related that you would like to see put on The Chopping Block and of course feel free to write in the comments the Loeb how you feel about this animation. What are your likes and dislikes?
PS. Do remember that I am basing this off of my own opinions and my own dislikes and I am not an over analyst in any shape or form, nor am I looking for potential hidden messages that are or are not there like most people do. I am just talking about what I know about what is Canon according to the show and how whether or not this animation goes along what we know is Cannon as well as the animators / writer own headcanon and whether or not they Clash. Again I hope you enjoyed this.
Fall of the Crystal Empire - MLP Fan Animation