Unicorns of the Crystal Empire. Where are they?

Have you ever noticed that there is not a single unicorn in the Crystal Empire?

Let's remember which owners of the horn in the Crystal Empire we know:

- Princess Cadence - Shining Armor - Flary Hart - Princess Amore - Sunburst - Radiant Hope - Sombra

Shining Armor and Sunburst can be immediately excluded from this list, since they are newcomers. As well as Cadence, Princess Amore and Flary Hart, because they are princesses and we will return to them later.

We still have two interesting personalities - Sombra and Radiant Hope. Since they were not revealed to us much in the animated series, what is written in the comics can be considered canon. And in the comic, their prehistory has been revealed quite well for a long time.

Let's turn to the 35th issue of the main line: "The Siege of the Crystal Empire Part 2"

From it we can learn about the childhood of Sombra and Radiant Hope. It says that Radiant Hope "lost a lot" and that they both lived in an orphanage. And this means that we don't know anything about their parents. It can also be noticed that the attitude of other foals to Sombra and Radiant Hope Vesma is negative - no one wants to communicate and be friends with them. Therefore, they unite.

Now let's remember about the crystal heart - when they looked into it and saw their future - Radiant Hope saw herself as a princess, and Sombra saw something very scary. We will return to Radiant Hope a little later.

When Sombra escaped from the Crystal Empire, he realized that:

"He is not a unicorn, but an umbrum, one of the shadow pony race imprisoned in the dungeons after their attack on the empire"

It turns out that Sombra was sorted out - he is not a unicorn, but an umbrum, everything is clear.

Now back to Radiant Hope. Initially, I had a theory that she could be the daughter of Queen Amore, which she handed over to the orphanage for some reason, there may be many reasons, but then I reread the comic again and drew attention to "lost a lot" - it turns out she still had parents, but with them something has happened. And most likely she knew them. If we recall Applejack's parents, it becomes clear to us that they have a tendency to die, which means that the parents of Radiant Hope died under unknown circumstances. Or is it not?

Princess Amore is poorly disclosed and we know almost nothing about her - she is a powerful ruler, lit her heart and even seems to have founded a Crystal Empire herself, but why isn't she an alicorn? If we stick to the theory that ponies become alicorns from an overabundance of magic (which we could roughly observe in season 4, using the example of Twilight Sparkle), then we can conclude that there is simply not enough magic in the Crystal Empire to give birth to unicorns and turn into an alicorn, but there is another theory, based on the fact that the receiver Amore - Cadence still became an alicorn (earlier, as far as I know, she was a pegasus), then perhaps the reason is different. Maybe the problem is specifically in Princess Amora herself?

what if her love is not real? And it was she who ordered to get rid of Radiant Hope's parents for unknown reasons? Maybe it's because of her that there aren't any unicorns in the Crystal Empire?

There is a feeling that management positions with great power and influence should be occupied by unicorns. This is logical, because for the performance of certain official duties, the horn is a useful thing. So where is the guarantee that the imperious ruler, a small unknown state in the North of Equestria, could not demolish the tower? That she couldn't start the genocide of other unicorns for fear of losing her place and importance?

But this is all just my guess, there is also another theory that the extinction of unicorns occurred during the reign of Sombra. If we turn to the episode of the 3rd season with the same name "Crystal Empire", then we can remember what happened to the horn of Shining Armor - he got black crystals and lost magic. And during the reign of Sombra, for obvious reasons, what happened to unicorns also happened, perhaps this was the reason for their extinction, or perhaps he just killed them. And this theory could be adhered to if it were not for the comics, where at least a little, but the times of the reign of Princess Amore and the childhood of Sombra were shown. Already there we see the complete absence of unicorns and the sidelong glances of other foals at the only two unicorns in the Crystal Empire. Therefore, this theory can already be dismissed, albeit partially. By the way, there are pegasi, although there are very few of them, but they still exist.

Although it may be easier and the cold climate of the Crystal Empire just doesn't suit unicorns, but I like the theory with Princess Amore more. But as many people, so many opinions. Maybe you also have your own theories, write them in the reviews under the article. Or maybe you just never paid attention to it at all? Anyway, thanks for reading!