Elapsed time?

I will be having Twilight Sparkle making an appearance in an upcoming chapter, but there's one thing that is bothering me, and that's the time elapsed between the Canterlot wedding and when she ascended to alicorn status. I'm unable to decide how many weeks to allow, so I would appreciate any suggestions. The length isn't exactly critical, but I do want it to be consistent.

Comments

[Sparkler]

Season 1 starts with the Summer Sun Celebration; season 3 ends just before the next Summer Sun Celebration. So it's not more than a year.

[Goldfur]

1541207 That narrows it down a lot, thanks!

[Between Lines]

1541207

Wrong. Winter Wrap up and Hearth's warming eve appear in episodes in that order (With intervening periods of summer I might add). That means that there had to have been an offscreen hearth's warming, and an offscreen winter wrap up.

I generally assume each season to follow the rough chronology of a year, as there's no real reason for it not to, and as we have two seasons begin with summer sun celebrations, there is some precedent. Whatever elements of the year we miss, such as celebrations and seasons, can just be chalked up to "nothing interesting happened."

[SmokySkies]

1541621 1541207 I'm going to have to support Sparkler's claims. All the evidence points to this being the first Summer Sun Celebration since the one in Season 1, Episode 1.

From episode 1:
Princess Celestia: I must admit that it is wonderful to actually be looking forward to the Summer Sun Celebration.
Twilight Sparkle: What do you mean?
Princess Celestia: For my subjects, it has always been a celebration of my defeat of Nightmare Moon. But for me... [sighs] It was just a terrible reminder that I'd had to banish my own sister.
Twilight Sparkle: I guess I never really thought about it that way.
Princess Celestia: But now it has become a wonderful reminder of her transformation back into Princess Luna, and our happy reunion. I am so pleased that you will be playing a role in the festivities. I know it must have been difficult to see your friends return to Ponyville without you.

From episode 2
Princess Celestia: Citizens of Equestria, it is no longer with a heavy heart but with great joy that I raise the summer sun. For this celebration now represents not the defeat of Nightmare Moon, but the return of my sister, Princess Luna.

If there had been other Summer Sun Celebrations between S1E1 and now, why would the Celebration only just NOW represent the return of Luna? It's been confirmed since about halfway through Season 1 that the episodes don't always occur in perfect chronological order, and this just further cements that fact. "This is particularly true for the first season, where these shifts are very pronounced, with "Fall Weather Friends" having aired shortly after "Winter Wrap Up". When asked about this, Lauren Faust explained that the latter episode was simply written earlier because the idea of ponies controlling the weather needed to be introduced first, and that a consistent chronology was not one of the writers' concerns at the time." - http://mlpfanart.wikia.com/wiki/Episode_chronologies

And now that I've had my fun with episode detail nitpicking, time to dive into Goldfur's latest work!

[Between Lines]

1588578

You know, it frustrates me when people vouch for the one year theory without giving any consideration to the implications thereof. For example, assuming this was one year, then every single summer episode HAD TO TAKE PLACE IN THE SPAN OF ABOUT 5 MONTHS. Even stretching it to Spring, we've still got:

Trixie's embarrasment, shunning, stint on a rock farm, earning enough to buy the alicorn amulet wholesale, returning to ponyville and wreaking vengeance. Even if we take this to be on opposite ends of the year, I.E. late summer to early summer of next year, it's still an incredibly short stint of time.

And that's just trixie, let's look at what else we have to jam into the months of May to August:
Nightmare Moon's return, Discord's return, Chrysalis' attack, Sombra's return, the Crystal Empire's return, the dragon migration, the parasprites, the destruction of town hall, applejack's brief exile, the trip to Appleoosa, the crystal empire preparing to host the Equestria games...

Also, add in the oddity that all this happens during the summer. Leaving the fall, winter, and early spring barren of any sort of activity, forcing us to jam three seasons into tiny slivers of time immediately post- and pre-summer sun celebration.

The simple truth is that a year is a ridiculous amount of time for MLP to exist in. It just is, and these lines you quote prove nothing. As a matter of fact, I quoted them myself to show that at NO POINT does she explicitly say that this is the first summer sun since Luna returned.

Allow me to posit a counter argument: This is the first summer sun Luna participated in. She just got back from a guilt ridden millennium of exile, and as of nightmare night, ponies were still terrified of her. (Pinkie Pie and the kids were an act, but you know a lot of those ponies were in legitimate fear.) Celestia is smart enough to know that "Massive public appearance on the anniversary of my creaming her" is probably not the most therapeutic setting for her recovering sister. Instead, they wait a few years until she's properly acclimated to Equestria, and Equestria to her. Now that the scars have healed, it's FINALLY time to celebrate. I find that far more believable than 1-year PTSD.

In summary, the 1-year theory is absurd. There's no explicit evidence for it, and it forces a bunch of stupid continuity issues. Believe it if you want, but just answer me a question first: Why? There's no concrete evidence, so why would you support a theory that basically serves to do nothing other than cheapen the experiences of the characters by shoehorning them into a rushed pace?

[SmokySkies]

1589239
I'll buy that. (Although Luna didn't seem to be showing all that much PTSD that Nightmare Night - perhaps more of the citizens still freaking out and needing time to recover instead?). Either way, rather miffed that they didn't show any winter episodes except for the two as, like you said, it means there was a heck of a lot of nothing going on during winter (and probably fall/spring as well). That and/or the animators didn't want to draw winter backgrounds so all episodes took place in the "summer" and/or fall/spring is really warm. Anywho, I hereby retract my 1-year proposal.

[Between Lines]

1595156

Thanks. Sorry if I got a bit rabid there. And yeah, she wasn't too PTSD on nightmare night, but that was season 2, so that gives her at least a year to tape herself back together. I always prefer to err on the side of more time when continuity allows it. Makes integrating with canon easier