Bookplayer's 50 Headcanon Questions · 7:12pm Apr 11th, 2014
So bookplayer put up a wondeful list of 50 headcanon questions on her blog yesterday, and a huge number of people have already responded. I haven't read anyone's responses yet because I've been trying to get mine written up clean and without interference, but I'm looking forward to seeing them later today and over the weekend.
For those of you who are interested, here's a list of the authors who I know have filled it out thus far:
RBDash47
Jake R – Now with an expanded section on Word of God!
TiaC
bats
PoweredByTea
Sheddy
Causal Quill
Emptybee
Blue_Paladin42
TitaniumDragon
Mercury Gilado
Lurks-no-More
Tactical Rainboom
Blagdaross
Silent Strike
GhostOfHeraclitus
Bad Horse
FanOfMostEverything
ultra1437
CDR
Silent Strider
Abecedarian
MariusloannesP
Georg
Scramblers and Shadows
The Descendant
ArgonMatrix
Isseus
Sereg
comicfan616
Warren Hutch
Sozmioi
Cold in Gardez
Anyway, this killed my productivity for the last five hours. I hope you all enjoy!
The Princesses:
1. How old are Celestia and Luna?
Older than Luna's banishment, but not by a whole lot. They need to have defeated Discord, but they appear to have not been around (or at least not important) during the pre-classical era. Because of this, I peg them at between 1250 and 1500 years old, though I generally subscribe to the not-around theory over the not-important theory. My memory is that PoweredByTea has a non-important theory which I find really compelling, but I haven't quite adopted it yet.
2. How old is Cadance?
Her apparent age. As much as I love Skywriter's Cadence of Cloudsdale Cycle, I have a hard time not embracing the GM Berrow books as canon. It's a bit of a shame, though, because Skywriter's Cadance is so good.
3. Were Celestia and Luna always alicorns, or did they ascend?
I don't have a whole lot of headcanon on this one. My default would be that they were always alicorns, but I could be swayed to a more strong position in either direction by a particularly good and well thought-out story.
4. Are Cadance and Twilight immortal?
Someone wrote a nice story on this with a take that I liked: Fervidor's "Just a Sunrise". The idea in it was that Twilight and Cadance can both choose whether or not they'd like to be immortal. My thought would be that Cadance, as the alicorn princess of love, plans to live a mortal life with Shining Armor; Twilight hasn't decided.
5. Have there been other alicorns in the past?
Almost certainly, though I don't have any details on that. This may become something I work into my stories, though—there's at least one I've got planned out where it could be relevant. Assuming Celestia has some control over the ascension of alicorns, as "Magical Mystery Cure" sort of implies, I don't think there had ever been more than two, though, prior to Luna's return (when Cadance would have already been around). And I don't think Twilight was really supposed to be one, either, but I think by her very nature she's been forcing Celestia's hoof on the issue. Whether Celestia would have broken pattern and made her an alicorn without Luna returning is an open question, but under the present circumstances both she and Luna agreed that Twilight should be given the opportunity.
6. How much authority do Celestia and Luna have in Equestria?
Celestia has almost complete authority, but generally tries not to exercise it. Luna has very little authority. In my mind, their authority is less official and more in line with Augustus Caesar's authority in the years he ruled the Roman Empire. Augustus's rule was based on the idea of auctoritas, which can be thought of as an individual's prestige and his/her ability to rally support from the people. For much of his rule, he could have commanded that people do what he wanted, but he was still wary of the anti-monarchism that brought down his uncle, and so he instead relied on his own personal auctoritas, essentially running the empire via suggestions (that he knew would be followed as if they were orders, and that were backed up by considerable military power, even if this was left largely unspoken).
I see Celestia's authority being very similar. She's largely content to let her subjects do what they want, but she will occasionally offer suggestions or serve in important 'ceremonial' roles, while knowing full-well that her suggestions and ceremonial titles carry more force than the orders and official titles of any other ruler in her world. Luna is being brought into that framework, but she hasn't had time to develop the personal authority Celestia's built up over centuries. She lives in her sister's shadow and what authority she has right now is basically just reflected from Celestia's own. This situation will wane over time, until eventually she has authority of her own.
See what I did there?
7. Does Shining Armor rule The Crystal Empire along side of Cadance?
Sort of. My headcanon is that Cadance is actually the ruler of the Crystal Empire in the traditional monarchichal sense. But I think the reappearance of the Crystal Empire and the fact that it's being ruled by an alicorn princess from Equestria means that the governmental model is going to begin to shift toward the standard model for Equestria proper, where alicorns rule by auctoritas rather than by fiat. At the moment, Shining doesn't have any real power, but as the system moves toward the Equestrian model, he'll come to have a level of authority fairly commensurate with Cadance, and that's not tied to her status as ruler. If they were to break up at some point twenty to forty years down the road, this could become rather problematic, but I don't think that's likely to happen.
8. Other than Twilight, Luna, and Cadance, what relationships have been important to Celestia in her lifetime (students, close friends, lovers, family)?
Celestia has had a number of close friends, students, and lovers in the past, but never family. Luna is her only family. Even other alicorns would have fallen short of being considered family, at least in Celestia's mind. But a millenium without your family makes for a lot of loneliness and self-recrimination, and Celestia has looked for solace many times where she could find it, usually with ponies like Twilight with whom she had a close enough relationship that she felt like she could let herself open up some more without being hurt. She's naturally introverted, because of Luna's banishment—though she was extroverted beforehand. Having her sister back and two other alicorns to boot is really changing her world around, though, and she's likely to stray out of her old patterns.
Ponies and Equestrian Culture:
9. Are there still cultural differences between earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns, or is the culture homogeneous by the time shown in canon? Are there cultural stereotypes (positive or negative)?
There are still cultural differences, and this should be obvious from the fact that the pony tribes are only partially integrated. Cloudsdale, obviously, is only for pegasi; and Appleoosa seems to be an earth pony settlement. I'm a big fan of bookplayer's look at some of those cultural differences in "Maiden's Day". As for stereotypes, there are a few though they're referenced mostly in the jokey, conforming-to-stereotypes sense and less in the prejudicial sense. Pegasi are seen as competitive, brash, and generally not concerned with intellectual pursuits. There are two conflicting stereotypes of earth ponies—the first that they're emotional, prone to exaggeration, and neurotic; and the second that they're boring but dependable. It's common in some settings to hear references to Type A earth ponies and Type B earth ponies. Unicorns are thought to be self-involved and elitist (though they'll usually substitute "refined and cultured" when describing themselves). Sometimes, unicorns are thought of as intellectual and out-of-touch, but this isn't a common stereotype since it clearly applies less to unicorns as a whole and more to a select class of ponies who are often, but not exclusively, unicorns.
10. Are there foods or items native to Cloudsdale that are uncommon on the ground? Are there foods or items on the ground that are uncommon in Cloudsdale?
Marshmallows are available on the ground, but not in Cloudsdale. Cloudsdale could import them, but pegasi prefer the local alternative: sugar floccus. Pegasi make sugar floccus by collecting certain types of clouds and extruding them with sugar to make a light batter of a consistency like whipped cream. The batter is then spooned out into little round balls and dried under sunlight until it hardens. Sugar floccus is similarly available to earth ponies, but they tend to prefer marshmallows.
While some earth ponies and unicorns enjoy spicy food, it's widely agreed that pegasi have mastered making it (even though only about 10% of pegasi enjoy it). Pegasi chefs began experimenting with using rainbows to flavor dishes back in the 800's. They have a sweet taste, but are exceptionally spicy. Pegasi use them in a variety of soups and creamy curries—much as coconut milk gets used in Thai cooking, except that the spiciness is inherent in the rainbow and doesn't need to be added with peppers or other ingredients. Since earth ponies tend to like spicy food more than either unicorns or pegasi, there has been a lot of work on trying to find regular land-based crops that can be cultivated to provide a similar (or greater) level of spiciness, but so far nopony has had much luck with this.
11. Can all unicorns learn all spells, given the time and effort spent practicing them, or is magical talent usually limited in some way?
Theoretically, any unicorn can learn any spell, but there are major gradations in talent with magic among the unicorn populace, and moreover most unicorns don't have much interest in studying magic beyond a few simple spells like levitation. For all practical purposes, only about one in twenty unicorns has the natural talent to learn the full range of common spells. The number of unicorns with the added talent necessary to use spells like the ones recorded in the Star Swirl the Bearded wing of the Canterlot Library is much smaller, and the number with both that amount of talent, with a desire to learn, and with the intelligence to piece together the rules behind unicorn magic and create new spells is very, very small—only a handful of such unicorns are born each generation.
12. Earth pony magic: Does it exist? What is it?
Of course it exists—but it's a secret!
More seriously, I really like bookplayer's idea of growing magic in "Maiden's Day". I might go a step further, though, and say that earth pony magic is about connecting with other living things. We see that on display with Applejack and her plants, but it also plays into how Pinkie relates to other ponies, and with the generally stronger family ties we seem to see with earth ponies than with pegasus and unicorn ponies. This also plays into the twin stereotypes of earth ponies as either neurotic and emotional, or boring but dependable—there's some truth behind this stereotype, coming from earth pony magic's tendency to bring a herd closer together. Self-selection tends to group earth ponies with similar personalities, and earth pony magic acts as a reinforcer for those personality traits, so earth ponies whose friends are generally more neurotic (like the flower ponies) will become more neurotic themselves, whereas earth ponies who are around more stolid individuals (like the Apple family or the Pie family) have those traits boosted.
13. Some pony families we’ve seen seem to have naming conventions (the Apples, Twilight’s family) and others don’t appear to (Rarity’s family, Pinkie’s family), which is more common? Are there reasons for one or the other?
I actually did a blog post on pony naming conventions already. But as for surnames, I'd just like to point folks to Ghost's headcanon that he mentions in the comments to that blog post. It's pretty thorough and really cool, and it's my go-to stop for thinking about it now.
14. How much formal schooling is an average, middle class pony expected to complete?
Given that Ponyville seems to have a one-room schoolhouse, I'd say eight years.
15. What’s the average lifespan for a pony? At what age is a pony expected to be independent of their parents?
I actually don't have any headcanon on this. My memory is that the only time age is explicitly mentioned is when Fluttershy says she's a year older than Pinkie, and I don't remember timing cues being given for things like when the Mane Six got their cutie marks, or when Cheese Sandwich visited Ponyville.
That said, I did have to work on this problem when I wrote "Three Nights", and I think I came down on thinking that Cadance is currently early-thirties and Twilight is early-twenties, so I've been treating ponies like they have human-like lifespans. I'd say they're generally expected to be independent a little earlier than us, however, going by the life situations of the Mane Six. I think we can take that a step further and say that ponies are expected to become independent shortly after receiving their cutie marks, though they usually have a bit of school left to finish too—so independence around fifteen.
16. Are there roughly an equal number of male and female ponies?
Yes.
17. How informed are most ponies about things that happen in other parts of Equestria? What about other parts of the world?
Ponies are approximately as well-informed as Americans, so not all that well-informed on average. Many of them read newspapers, but there's generally very little discussion of world events or even distant Equestrian events, so most ponies are pretty focused on their day-to-day lives and the place where they live.
The Main Characters:
18. How old are the Mane Six? Spike? The CMC?
The Mane Six are all in their early twenties. Specifically, as of season four, Twilight is 24, Fluttershy is 25, Pinkie Pie is 24, Rainbow Dash is 23, Applejack is 25, and Rarity is 25. The Crusaders are all 12, and Spike (who was hatched at the same time Twilight got her cutie mark) is also 12.
19. Did Fluttershy remain on the ground after getting her cutie mark? Were she and Rainbow Dash friends all along, or did they drift apart for a while?
Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash only became friends after Rainbow moved to Ponyville. At the time they got their cutie marks, they hardly knew each other. Fluttershy did stay on the ground after getting her cutie mark, except for a couple visits to see her family—but these were short and infrequent, since pegasi don't have the sorts of family bonds that earth ponies and unicorns do. When Rainbow moved to Ponyville, though—at around the age of 15, so four years after getting her cutie mark—she and Fluttershy became friends very quickly.
20. Rarity and Applejack both seem to have grown up in Ponyville. What were their interactions like before the show?
Rarity and Applejack didn't interact much before the show. As a filly, Rarity was good friends with Cheerilee and friends-but-not-quite-as-good with a number of other ponies. Applejack was kind of a loner in school, though, especially after she lost her parents, and she really didn't spend time making friends until after she earned her cutie mark. But at that point, she was working on the farm regularly, and when she went into town, it was for reasons other than to go buy fancy dresses. Although they've known of each other for years, Applejack and Rarity never really became friends until after Twilight came to Ponyville.
21. What do Twilight and Spike consider their relationship to be?
Sister/Brother, though if you asked them, they'd both studiously say something like Librarian/Assistant. They don't talk about it, but they both know what their real relationship is, and they wouldn't trade it for anything.
22. When did Pinkie move in with the Cakes? Is she a worker who rents a room, an apprentice, or is there some other relationship?
Pinkie moved in with the Cakes very shortly (within two weeks) after coming to Ponyville, so about 11 years ago (as of Season 4). The Cakes are actually older than most pony couples would be when they have children, and have tried and failed in the past. When Pinkie showed up in Ponyville—sans any sort of planning on her part, really—they both recognized that she needed some help with important, basic things like food and shelter, and because of her personality, the Cakes both latched onto her as something like a surrogate daughter. That relationship has evolved over the years as Pinkie has grown up, and now she's more like an apprentice, but still somepony they care very deeply about. Pinkie doesn't get treated quite like a daughter anymore, but she doesn't pay rent and she is considered part of their family for all practical purposes.
23. Who among the Mane Six had the best parents growing up? The worst parents?
None of the Mane Six had terrible parents, but if you have to pick a worst, it would go to Fluttershy's parents. She was the youngest of four foals, and never very good at being a pegasus. Her mother worked in the weather factory (probably still does) and her father was a staff photographer for the Cloudsdale Chronicle. Pegasus families are never as close as other families, though, and since their youngest daughter was always a bit of an oddball, they didn't really have a whole lot to do with her. When Fluttershy moved to Ponyville, she lost most of her connection to her family, but neither she nor they particularly minded. Not that there were hard feelings, she'd just never been especially close with them and won't be in the future either. (Watch canon blow this out of the water next season.) Rainbow Dash is a bit of an oddball as pegasi go, because she's actually very close with her parents, still. She's also an only child.
Twilight's parents were always very supportive of her, though a bit uptight. Pinkie's parents were much the same. Applejack's parents, when they were around, were wonderful. But the pony with the best parents was Rarity. Even though her mother and father have always been very different ponies from her and to this day don't really understand their daughter's interests, they've done everything they can to help her realize her dreams, including financing the start of her business (which Rarity paid back to them well before the start of the series). They also taught her how to relate with other ponies, and most of her generosity stems from how they raised her. She's got a bit of a weird relationship with them because she and they have so little in common as far as interests are concerned, but she loves them dearly and she'd do anything for them.
24. Why didn’t the CMC hang out more/know each other before Call of the Cutie?
Although it's a one-room schoolhouse, the Ponyville school actually runs two classes: morning and afternoon. Students are only supposed to go to one or the other. Apple Bloom has always gone to morning classes, since her family generally do a lot of the farm work in the morning and when she was younger it was easier to keep her out of their hair that way. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo always went to the afternoon classes, and so they never really met Apple Bloom, although they became friends with each other. They both transferred to the morning class after meeting her, though, since they didn't have any particular attachment to their own class.
Fillies and colts from the two classes do interact, so both Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle did know Diamond Tiara beforehand, but like Applejack before her, Apple Bloom was mostly a loner at school and would just head home to the farm once class was done instead of hanging around to make friends.
25. Is Scootaloo an orphan? Will she ever be able to fly?
Scootaloo is not an orphan, and she will be able to fly, though it's going to take a long time before she can get there (and possibly some help from Apple Bloom).
26. Will Apple Bloom’s cutie mark involve an apple in some way, even if it’s unrelated to farming or baking?
I kind of expect canon will wind up trumping this one (I feel weird about the idea that the CMC could be stuck at the same age forever, like Bart and Lisa) and the show will eventually give them cutie marks. And if/when that happens, I expect her cutie mark probably will involve an apple in some way. But if it were up to me, I'd make her cutie mark not involve an apple. I don't think we've seen a whole lot of indication of her talents, but I think they probably lean toward something like carpentry or better yet engineering. I'd really like her cutie mark to be science-related, and for her to become one of the premiere inventors in Equestria. I actually do think the show may be moving in this direction with what it's shown in Twilight Time and elsewhere, but I don't know if they'll pay it off.
27. How is Sweetie Belle’s relationship with their parents different than Rarity’s was?
It's not, actually—see above. Sweetie Belle is a little better match with her parents; her interests are sort of a mix between theirs and Rarity's. The biggest difference in growing up has less to do with parents, though, since Sweetie Belle has to live in Rarity's shadow, and that influences her a lot, and has hurt her ability to be her own mare and find her own talents. She's too focused on living up to the ideal she has in her mind of what a pony should be, that's taken root because of how awesome (she thinks) her sister is.
Side and Background Characters:
28. Is Mr. Cake the father of the Cake twins or not?
What!? Yes, of course he is!
29. Are Big Mac and Cheerilee an item, romantically?
I don't usually go around swooning at people I'm not romantically interested in, and they certainly spend enough time hanging out together, so yes.
30. How did Prince Blueblood get his title?
Actually, this is all a giant misunderstanding. His first name is Prince, like with Prince Rogers Nelson. He tries to convince everyone he's a real prince by acting snooty, though, and it usually works. (Alternately, he's just the grandson of a previous alicorn co-ruler who has since died.)
31. Is Silver Spoon equally as bad as Diamond Tiara?
Silver Spoon is worse. She understands that how Diamond Tiara acts is wrong, but she doesn't do anything to change it because she wants to be popular too. She's afraid of acting the way her conscience tells her to act.
32. Is Zecora’s magic common among zebras?
It's not unprecedented, but it's not something that every zebra knows or can do. Most zebras are just like ponies and do the same sorts of jobs ponies do. Zecora just has an unusual job and skill-set.
33. Why does Daring Do publish her stories as fiction?
Because no one would believe them if they weren't published as fiction. Also, it lets her creatively embellish some bits to make them more compelling. She's too good an adventurer to wind up in quite as many life-threatening situations and have quite so many narrow escapes as she portrays Daring Do having in her stories.
34. Do you have a strong headcanon for any non-speaking or one line background ponies that you want to share?
Let me just point you at "The Curious Incident of the (Robot) Dog in the Night-time"—which, incidentally, just got featured in the first round of this year's Everfree Northwest Fanfic Spotlight!
Other Species:
35. Does Equestria differentiate between speaking and non-speaking species, in terms of respect, rights and legal responsibilities? Is there some other line or scale used? (For example, how are cows classified? Diamond Dogs? A chimera?)
Equestria is very forward-thinking and gives all speaking species equal rights and opportunities. It imposes relatively few legal responsibilities, though, since much of the running of the government is at its root based on the auctoritas principle. Thus, while most ponies go to school for eight years, school isn't mandated for anyone—which is why you don't see cows attending school, in general. They would be free to do so, but they don't particularly want to.
Non-speaking creatures are a protected class, and most ponies are taught to care for and look after them, though the level of involvement shown in events like Ponyville's Winter Wrap-up is rare. Because of this, though, vegetarianism is effectively mandated throughout Equestria—which is one reason why relatively few griffons live there.
36. Do other speaking species form their own nations, or are all nations largely integrated, with some having larger populations of a species than others?
Most speaking species have their own nations, though not all—cows are fairly docile and tend to just live in other species' lands. Cows don't really do much except eat grass, either. They're not the pinnacle of ungulate civilization. Ponies have a number of distinct nations across the world. Though Equestria is by far the largest, Saddle Arabia is a completely separate country. The Crystal Empire is technically independent as well, though Celestia and Cadance have been working to tie it into Equestria and this will probably be accomplished in just a couple years.
The Griffons have one major nation, Griffonstan, and a number of smaller city-states scattered around in the mountains of the world. The Camels are largely restricted to Camelu and the Zebras to Zebrica, though some members of each species live in other nations.
37. Are minotaurs related to cows at all?
In the distant past, but they're not a whole lot more related to cows than ponies are. Romantically, minotaurs are likely to find cows more attractive than they'd find ponies, though. Minotaurs tend to be horny as hell (no pun intended), so this is a topic that can come up a lot if you put two minotaurs in the same room. And not all minotaurs prefer cows to ponies—or even their own kind to ponies.
38. Do all zebras rhyme?
No, but it's actually an important part of Zecora's job.
39. Do zebra cutie marks work the same way as pony cutie marks?
I really don't have headcanon on this, and probably won't until we get to meet another zebra in the show.
40. Do any species have types of magic, other than ponies and zebras?
Camels and giraffes are actually among the most magical creatures in the world, but very little is known about their forms of magic.
41. Is the lack of buffalo presence in Equestria cultural, or simply because most pony towns aren’t built to accommodate a full grown buffalo?
Buffalo, a bit like their cattle relatives, don't really go in for building cities. They're much more concerned with civilization than cows, though, and have developed into semi-nomadic tribes that wander certain parts of the world. Each tribe usually rotates between a small number of stomping grounds throughout the year, moving about once a season. There are a few tribes of buffalo in southern Equestria and near the southern border between Griffonstan and Camelu, but most buffalo live on the great plains of Taurango, occasionally visiting the cities of the minotaurs.
Headcanon and You:
42. Do you consider official sources other than the show (comics, card game text, movies, novels, etc.) to be canon?
I consider Equestria Girls to be canon, and I generally treat the GM Berrow novels the same way, since I believe the show staff have said they intend to treat them that way, or at least not contradict them. I kind of hate the name Sweetie Drops, though. I enjoy the comics and the card game, but I don't consider either to be canon (except possibly for character-naming purposes). I generally don't care much about Word of God (especially when it comes from Lauren Faust), though I've really bought into the "Twilight won't outlive her friends" comment for some reason.
43. Do you have one headcanon that you always use, or do you switch depending on projects?
I generally switch depending on project. Some themes may get woven between the stories, but a lot of my work is intended to be single-shot and unconnected to other things. "A Filly's Guide to Not Making Headlines", "Three Nights", "Princess Luna Likes Coffee", and a few forthcoming stories are all intended to be in the same continuity even if it doesn't show, though. "Amazingly Awesome Adventures" and "Bell, Book & Candle" may or may not be sharing that continuity; I haven't decided yet.
"Purple Prose", "Twilight Sparkle Investigates", "Transference", and "Curious Incident" are all intended to be one-off stories not sharing continuity with any of the others, though. That's not to say those stories might not get sequels at some future time, but (like all shipping) they involve enough changes to established characters that I think about them separately. With the stories that share continuity I put more thought into how the characters behave and develop. I'm more comfortable working inside that framework, and I find it easier to keep consistency there.
44. Can you easily accept the headcanons of different writers? Do you prefer when stories match your headcanon?
As long as headcanon is presented well and a story isn't expecting me to make big mental leaps it hasn't prepared me for, I'm perfectly happy to read stories with headcanons that disagree with my own. I've already mentioned Skywriter's Cadance of Cloudsdale Cycle, which disagrees with my headcanon frequently, but I don't love it any less for that. On the other hand, it's almost hard not to take GhostOfHeraclitus's "Whom the Princesses Would Destroy..." as deuterocanonical.
45. Is there a part of your headcanon that you wish was more popular among writers?
I think a lot of pony fans are a little too quick to accept the idea that Equestria is a utopian ideal and that there aren't still cultural differences between earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi. I personally feel like these differences are some of the jucier stuff one can work with as a writer, and it would be nice to see more people doing it. Not in terms of drawing broad cultural stereotypes and/or racism, mind. I'd just like to see some more nuanced treatment of the fact that different groups of ponies may react in different ways even when presented with the same situation.
46. Is there a popular piece of headcanon that other writers use that you dislike?
47. Have you ever written a story or blogpost just to explain some part of your headcanon (other than this one)?
Do you even know who I am?
48. Does your headcanon influence things like your favorite pony, ship, or episode?
Very much so. My evolving headcanon on Applejack (which casts her in more of a trickster role, and which is actually well supported by canon) is threatening to make her unseat Rarity as my favorite pony. My headcanon probably affects my shipping preferences, too, though I don't think I have very strong shipping preferences. I don't think it has a whole lot to do with my favorite episodes, though.
49. Would it bother you if the show proved part of your headcanon wrong? Any specific piece that would really bother you to lose?
My headcanon is generally pretty loose and flexible. The only thing that would bother me is if the show seemed to go back and write over characterization or setting work it had already established pretty well, completely changing it—like if the show started treating Applejack like she didn't have that clever/trickster side she's shown in episodes like "Fall Weather Friends" and "Spike At Your Service". But most of what I've got here, like sugar floccus and Fluttershy's parents, isn't a big deal to me. I don't even care a whole lot about whether Applejack's parents are dead or not.
Oh, though I really would like to see Scootaloo fly one day, or at least not see the possibility ruled out. I know, I'm weird like that.
50. Is there something that wasn't asked about here, but you feel like you need to explain to everyone?
Not really.
Could I get a list of these? This might come in useful.
2000720
The questions, or the answers?
Actually, let me edit a link to the questions up at the top of the post for anyone who's interested.
2000723
Yeah, that's what I was looking for. Thanks, man!
Interesting.
I don't think I could answer this myself, I have multiple headcanons for most of these questions, depending on the story I'm writing, and there's no particular one that's more "right" to me than any other, in general.
Most fascinating. I especially like the sugar floccus. I'm a sucker for the little details like that.
(Also, I've filled this out, so you could add that to the list. Um, if you want.
)
I love world building/ lore, so that this has taken off is very much great to me.
Don't know if you'd want to include a nobody like me, but here's mine.
Lovely!
I enjoyed your culinary digressions and your Crystal Empire headcanon considerably. There is an embryo of a story about the Crystal Empire modernizing. But you knew that already.
Thanks for your kind words; honestly, I probably would have adopted more of "...Crystal Heart Spell" as my own series canon had I not had a big chunk of the cycle already planned out by the time of its release.
If you are still collecting entries, and my ramblings qualify, they are here.
If you're still adding them, myself and CDR have filled out these posts yesterday as well.
2000858
2001227
2002441
2005663
Y'all (along with some others) have been added to the list!
My main headcanon doesn't differ much from others. So I decided to make a Human in Equestria Headcanon post. Many of the answers are applicable to both HiE and normal headcanons, but it was much more fun to write it this way! Hope the footnotes don't bother people too much, I had already started using them before I read another person who used them.
And thank you everybody for posting your answers! They're a fascinating read.
I joined in on the mayhem as well. Here.
Thanks for making a reasonably centralized list for me to pick my way through.
Here's mine:
https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/311352/50-questions
This was super interesting, and long. Very long.
I especially liked your description of Celestia's authority. It fits with the way I imagine her personality based on the show, and it mixes in a bit of history that seems very apropos given the mythology the show often draws from. It's as much of a guess as anything in the fanfiction world as we haven't really seen her in any roles other than the center of some sort of ceremony, or just randomly out and about, but she does seem to maintain a certain level of autonomy that is at odds with the occasional fanfic that describes her as feeling smothered by the guard and administration to the point where she feels the need to escape from them. Either that's exactly what she's doing in Feeling Pinkie Keen and Fall Weather Friends, or nobody particularly cares what she does with her time as long as there's no impending crisis.
Either way, I'm quite disappointed that we haven't seen more of her in Season 4. This may actually be the longest tract of Celestia-free episodes we've had since the show's creation.
I did see what you did there.
For the most part, I generally like your Alicorn related ideas, but I don't personally think Celestia has control over ascension per se, but rather she was able to see Twilight's potential to do so and helped her along. I'm honestly not sure what to think about alicorn status with regard to immortality.*
I think I may fall on the side of Skywriter being cooler as far as Cadance goes, partly because it is incredibly awesome, but mostly because I've never actually read any of the official books, and I'm content not to for the moment, although Prancypants has made quite a case for the Rarity one.
Speaking of Rarity, your conception of her parents is both awesome and weirdly relatable. Having family who support you despite not really understanding what you're doing with your life and possibly thinking you're kinda loopy is probably the best thing in the world. It was when I reached this point in this long-ass post that I decided I was going to have to comment on it, and the huge ramble down below came out while I was working my way back down to this point.
wat.
I'm rather partial to the word of Faust, and would be inclined to hold what she says in higher regard than almost anything else, but taken with a grain of salt, as she has occasionally taken to trolling. The reason for this is that I consider her to be the original creator of the universe which FiM is now playing with, sort of the root-author if you will. This doesn't mean I don't accept things that disagree with her, but rather that I'm just really interested in what she has to say.
This leads into how I think about divergent canon, which is that as long as any narrative is internally consistent, it's fine. I consider both the show itself and the comic and book works to be on the same playing field and in many ways fundamentally not differentiable from fanfiction. I mentally file stories by how they relate to the root story. Stories can relate themselves to other stories by sharing points in time with them. A "point" being the state of the universe at a particular time in a narrative. If a story makes a change to a point, it no longer shares that point with the source. I only consider a story "AU" if it fails to share any points with the root story. (There are very few things that qualify for this, I was going to use Rainbooms and Royalty as an example, but it theoretically contains points from the past prior to the Sonic Rainboom. Friendship is Optimal would be proper AU, since Equestria doesn't even exist in it.) In short, writers can go nuts, I don't mind, the only way to break your story is to make it internally inconsistent. Otherwise I only have subjective opinions on it.
I noticed you didn't answer number 46: "Is there a popular piece of headcanon that other writers use that you dislike?", even to say "No". Does this mean you're just not telling us what you don't like? Oh well. I have an answer for this. Human Obsessed Lyra. Please never use this.
* I guarantee I am over-thinking this to an absurd degree, but it's something I imagine a lot of fans have also done, and may have even come to similar conclusions. What follows is something between a description of show canon as a logic puzzle, and the thought process leading to my current personal headcanon. (purely for purposes of interpreting the show of course, lots of fics do wildly contradictory things and I'm okay with that)
I'm inclined to believe that Celestia and Luna are particularly special, not just for being alicorns, but for their roles as handlers of the heavens. While this seems like a fairly godlike role, and the show opener makes it seem like a really big deal, it was apparently handled by regular unicorns prior to the founding of Equestria. However, it seems evident that no matter who is performing it, this is a profoundly important role. Since apparently incapacitating their respective handlers leaves the sun and moon in an Antipodes-like state of disarray, it must be necessary to have someone to be in control of them at all times. Who controlled them first then? Surely primitive unicorns had to learn this power from somewhere, so what happened before they did?
Well, so far, there is one other being in the show who has displayed the ability to control the heavens. Discord. He's also the most god-like creature to manifest in the show. So, if you're up for some real wild speculation, imagine he's one of the old gods, either responsible for the creation of the world, or at least as old as the world himself. The (fairly flimsy) basis for this is that he's stupidly powerful, and while he's not completely omnipotent, he clearly doesn't use anything resembling unicorn magic, which I imagine as more of a manipulation of a fundamental force than an alteration of reality. My idea is that he was originally responsible for whatever cosmic maintenance tasks Celestia and Luna now perform, but got bored, taught the ancient unicorn tribe how to do it for him, and then left. (As in, left the universe. Poof.) At some point in his travels, he went crazy, and he eventually returned to Equestria and started messing with everyone.
Things get really fuzzy here. Prancypants has a story about this era that I liked involving some pretty serious time shenanigans that I wouldn't have thought of, but are really clever. Unfortunately, it's been kinda jossed by Princess Twilight Sparkle. PTS tells us that the RPS didn't actually posses the EoH until after they intended to confront Discord, but they did know about them somehow, which I take to indicate that there existed some legends about the Tree of Harmony back in that time. A simple explanation, then, is that the other old gods created the EoH as a sort of fail-safe designed to remedy exactly this sort of situation, hence why they can affect Discord. While association with the Elements makes a convenient explanation for immortality, PTS implies that the RPS were already extremely old alicorns when they acquired the elements to defeat Discord, (based on their appearance during the flashback scene.) and Celestia lives for at least another thousand years after breaking her connection to them.
As much as it's convenient, I don't like the idea that immortality is a by-choice sort of thing bestowed by alicornhood. How would you know? What would you do in order to choose? Wouldn't dying while possessing the innate ability to be immortal be equivalent to suicide by lack of will to live? I much prefer the idea that it's some sort of effect applied by something very powerful as a result of contact with it, and since I've ruled out the EoH, what remains is their connection to the sun and moon. If we accept my alternate pre-classical mythology involving discord, we can kill two birds with one stone. In order to allow the unicorn tribe to handle the heavens, he gave them some of his power. When it required a large group of unicorns to perform, there was little noticeable impact on the lives of the handlers, but when the responsibility was concentrated onto the princesses, it had the effect of dramatically extending their lives. I'm not sure if this is partially inspired by Skywriter or not. He describes a similar effect in Heretical Fictions, but ties it to something he calls the "Solar Throne" and gives C&L significantly more cosmic importance than modern canon seems to allow for.
All this leaves us with the question of what exactly it means to be an alicorn. The answer seems to be "in a cosmic sense, not much". The EoH seem to be directly involved in the spell that allowed Twilight to ascend, but I can't imagine them also being responsible for Cadence's ascension, so what allowed her to do so? If some sort of enlightenment is all that's required to ascend, why haven't more ponies done it? Advanced civilization has existed in Equestria for significantly more than a thousand years. That's a damn long time. If becoming an Alicorn is as easy as the Crystal Heart Spell implies, then why isn't the place flooded with them? Well, if they're not immortal by default, then we have our answer. There are only one or two every generation. Kinda disappointing explanation for the fourth race from an aesthetic standpoint, and also diminishes the general connectedness of the EoH with the happenings in Equestria, but if they're the fail-safe against rogue gods, then they don't really need to be terribly active.
On the other hand, if we go with the destiny route, which Skywriter is fond of and uses in CoC, then ponies with the potential to become alicorns are born when a leader is necessary for a kingdom of some kind. This route assumes that kingdoms are an intrinsic part of the land itself, rather than arbitrary definitions created by their inhabitants. There's some interesting support for this concept in the show. Under this paradigm, both Everfree and the Crystal Empire have artifacts that magically protect their domain. That being the Elements of Harmony and the Crystal Heart, respectively. At this point though, I'm not really solving any problems, just creating more questions, so I should probably stop here.