@Ardashir  
Interesting, I think brands like Disney should include More fairies in their movies.  
“mommy I love fairies!”  

@Ping_chan  
Not all of it, but a lot is. Even the nice fairies could be nasty and vindictive if crossed, and the nasty ones would torture and kill people out of sheer boredom. Ms. Briggs recounts literally hundreds of legends, some dating to quite recent times (her book was published in the 70’s) that boil down to ‘human unknowingly offends a fairy, so fairy totally destroys their heath, sanity, and life.’

@Ardashir  
Are most/all of the folklore on fairies grimdark and twisted?

@Master Zebulin  
Sadly no, but it’s got about everything else found in British fairy-lore.

@Ardashir
 
@Ardashir  

 
Does it say anything about Cryst-fairies?

@Stotter  
If you ever find a copy of a book titled Encyclopedia of Fairies by Katharine Briggs, check it out. It is probably THE best one-volume source on authentic British fairy lore. Heck, it covers about six or seven different versions of the kelpie, and that’s just for starters.

@cheezedoodle
 
@Ardashir  
I remember looking this up years ago when watching Durarara and looking up the dullahan, an unseelie faerie that inspired the headless horseman. It intrigued me how much variety there was under the umbrella term of “fairy”.

@cheezedoodle  
Same here. Then again, a lot about Equestria and the ponies gives off a ‘Faerie’ vibe. I’ve even heard the ponies themselves described as fae or nature spirits.

@Ardashir  
haha nerd

@Ardashir
 
From the beginning, they gave me a bit of an Unseelie Faerie vibe.

@Background Pony #E537  
Having read quite a few books on real Fairy lore (and spoken to a few people who still believe in them) these words are true. Seriously, you wouldn’t believe how terrified some people were and are of the Fair Folk.

@Background Pony #E537  
An entire population of Jokers. Ouch.

@Ardashir  
Secretly they like being happy go lucky pixies. They just also enjoy rampant slaughter too. :p  
Hey, it fits the way fair folk act! XD

Given what we now know about the real Umbrum, I wonder how difficult it was for them to play ‘Happy-Happy Little Pixies in Joyland’ with Hope for 1000 years?

I’m liking the designs, creepy nice.

Flutterponies????????????????????

That sounds Schizophrenic to me. :/

@Masem  
Hum yup, this is supposed to be a 4 part story arc? I’m not following IDW as closely as I used to.

@Ping_chan  
This I suspect we will get more of in the last 2 issues (with full expectation this was a front to lull Radiant to help)

I would really like to know exactly what these Umbrum are, and why they were sealed away under the crystal empire…  
Given the history of ponies with enough power to seal away or banish critters that are too powerful to deal with right here and now…  
Like Princess Celestia with Nightmare Moon or Starswirl the Bearded and the three adorable misguided Sirens.  
I’d guess that the Umbrum posed a problem for The Crystal Empire a long time ago and the crystal ponies were like “these darned Umbrum are causing us problems! What do?” “eehh, let’s just seal them away like everypony else does with their problems.”  
Ehh, either way I would like to see if the next issue would give more background on the Umbrum.

@Background Pony #4E02  
Which begs an interesting question: Did Sombra hear what he wanted to hear when he ran to the crystal, the Umbrum themselves neutral and only taking on the form that the pony wants to hear/see? (That is, this would make Sombra inherently evil, instead of the tormented soul we might have initially thought).
 
I doubt this would be the case, but it is an interesting possibility.

@Ardashir  
I’m going to go with a “no”, its stated the umbra can’t leave their prison that they’re sealed in by that Red crystal thing, so I don’t think the umbra were flying around talking to hope.
 
More likely, they read her mind and took the form most likely to hoodwink her.

So, the Umbrum were influencing her even before she met Sombra?

Welp, Hope once again proves herself to be the stupidest pony that has ever appeared on this show. Even freaking Pinkie Pie is more suspicious than this. The closest we’ve ever gotten is Fluttershy keeping a parasprite.