Bookplayer's Fifty Questions Answered · 8:17am Apr 11th, 2014
Bookplayer asked folks to answer her fifty questions about headcanon.
For those of you who don't know about the various "forms of canon", let me explain.
What is defined as "canon" is typically whatever is felt to be something which has been established about the world which should not be contradicted. For me, personally, I define the show as "canon", and everything else to be "non-canon"; that is to say, I think that if it is on the show, it shouldn't be contradicted by the show, but if it is in one of the auxillary works, it can be contradicted freely, and therefore is not "set in stone". Other people believe that all pony media - the books, the comics, ect. - are canon, and should not be contradicted (which probably made them sad because the show has already contradicted the comics a few times, and the comics the show - not surprising given that the people making the show did not read the comics, and don't consider them canon as a result - they might contradict them without even knowing it).
"Headcanon", then, is what someone accepts as canon about the world which has not been established in any canonical source. Basically, stuff you make up in your head that you claim is totally true about the universe (for instance, that Lyra and Bonbon are dating, or that the egg Spike hatched from was actually made out of paper mache, the sexuality of the mane six, or any number of other things) but which is not actually established by the show. This can also sometimes include things which are debatably part of the show but which are not necessarily totally explicit.
I try not to get too attached, but anyway, here are my personal views, or in many cases, simply wild explanations that should totally be true unless the writers come up with something more entertaining.
The Princesses:
1. How old are Celestia and Luna?
1032 and 1029 at the start of the series, though Luna is biologically only 29 years old, allowing someone to make the crack about Luna having been 29 for the last 1000 years.
2. How old is Cadance?
Late 20s, a bit younger than Luna's biological age.
3. Were Celestia and Luna always alicorns, or did they ascend?
They both ascended, and were originally unicorns.
4. Are Cadance and Twilight immortal?
I vacillate on this, but lean towards yes. If no, then there were other princesses in the last 1000 years.
5. Have there been other alicorns in the past?
If there were, they're all dead, save perhaps one (who would naturally have to be older than Luna and Celestia and not really want to interact with them, and who they think is a dork for his whole immortal angst thing - because he totally is. Being immortal is awesome, and that guy is just a tool). But no, I think these are the only ones, unless there's a good reason for their inclusion.
6. How much authority do Celestia and Luna have in Equestria?
They have absolute power in theory, but in practice Celestia delegates and doesn't exercise absolute power.
7. Does Shining Armor rule The Crystal Empire along side of Cadance?
Yes, and has the title of Prince (I will note that the title, at least, is actually canon). He's fifth in the line of succession.
8. Other than Twilight, Luna, and Cadance, what relationships have been important to Celestia in her lifetime (students, close friends, lovers, family)?
Per Faust, and I tend to agree with her, Celestia has never been married, and I don't think she has ever had a lover. Honestly I think of her as being asexual, never having been interested in such things. She has loved many little ponies as friends, but Twilight, Spike, and Cadance all are closer to her than anyone but her sister, and no one has been as close as those three since her parents, grandparents, and great grandparents died. I also personally like the idea that Luna and Celestia are the descendants of the six ponies from the Hearth's Warming play, possibly their great-grandchildren so that they can be related to all six.
Celestia is also fond of Shining Armor, though not to the same extent as Twilight, Luna, and Cadance.
Spike she has an ambiguous relationship with, gone into more detail in the Spike section.
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)?
Yes and no. The culture has become largely homogenized and regionalized, with your city of origin playing a much larger role than your species. However, due to the highly racial nature of Cloudsdale and Canterlot, they have retained the "most" pegasus and unicorn pride respectively.
Oh yes, and the racial slurs are mud pony, featherbrain, and bonehead, respectively. Mud pony is basically their version of "nigger". Featherbrain and bonehead are closer to saying that someone got gypped.
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?
There is lots of trade so it is unlikely that Cloudsdale really goes without so much. Indeed, my headcanon is that Cloudsdale moves around, so what is available varies by where it is this year.
11. Can all unicorns learn all spells, given the time and effort spent practicing them, or is magical talent usually limited in some way?
Magical talent is limited, per Celestia's comment that Twilight has the most potential of any unicorn she's ever seen (and I think she includes herself and Luna in that, both having originally been unicorns). Knowing how to cast a spell and having the power to cast a spell are different things, as shown by Trixie with the alicorn amulet and the fact that in days of old, before Luna and Celestia, the unicorns teamed up to move the sun and moon.
12. Earth pony magic: Does it exist? What is it?
Earth pony magic exists but tends to be innate, in the "being magic" rather than "having magic" sort of way, and earth pony magic is usually very weak - tied to physical ability and intuition. Pinkie Pie has an unusually large amount of magic for an earth pony.
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?
Ponies have naming conventions, but many ponies change their names after getting their cutie marks if their old one doesn't "fit"; this is less common than you'd think, because of the theme naming and the fact that many ponies end up pursuing something along the lines of their name due to various cultural inclinations. Unfortunately. Filthy Rich didn't realize that his family gave all of their kids horrible names in order to keep them humble, which is why Diamond Tiara is such a brat.
14. How much formal schooling is an average, middle class pony expected to complete?
Depends on where you live, and the standard is presently in the process of changing, but is mainly 8th grade in more rural areas, with urban areas pushing for more education; it is a mark of sophistication to go to more school.
15. What’s the average lifespan for a pony? At what age is a pony expected to be independent of their parents?
Ponies live as long as humans do; their age of independence varies considerably depending on social setting, but generally the age of majority is accepted to be 14-18, depending on family and social setting; they don't always move out at that age, though.
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 as aware of current events as humans of a similar era were; city ponies are more aware than rural ponies, but it mostly has to do with personal interest. Ponies are more aware of the goings-on of interesting foreign nations (Prance, Gryphonia) and less so of other places (anywhere poor).
The Main Characters:
18. How old are the Mane Six? Spike? The CMC?
They're in their mid-to-late teens; Spike is 6-8 years younger, and the CMC are all around 8-10 years old. Rainbow Dash turned 18 on her last birthday (shown on the show).
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 went back home afterwards. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy remained friends the whole time, but are closer now than they were before Twilight came to town.
20. Rarity and Applejack both seem to have grown up in Ponyville. What were their interactions like before the show?
They were causal acquaintances, and only became actual friends after the sleepover in season 1.
21. What do Twilight and Spike consider their relationship to be?
They have no idea what their relationship is, resulting in Spike's odd insecurity about his family. Spike was at first raised by Princess Celestia, but when he started calling her "mommy" Celestia decided that Twilight Sparkle should be the one to raise him, not her, because she did not have time to be a proper mother to him. However, Twilight never became "mommy" to Spike, and she called him her little assistant, but treated him like a child to be taken care of - somewhere between a little brother and a son. The net result is that he is her "assistant" but is really her little brother/son, whereas he sees her like a big sister, but also his boss, and fears that her love is contingent upon his job performance, and fears being sent away like Celestia did.
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 Pie moved in with the Cakes as an apprentice and also to get off their parents' farm, but they are related to Pinkie.
23. Who among the Mane Six had the best parents growing up? The worst parents?
Twilight had the best parents, but it is complicated; she not only has her own parents, but also Celestia as a tertiary semi-mother figure with which whom she shares a somewhat ambiguous relationship, which Celestia reciprocates to some extent; Twilight's parents love her and are very supportive.
Rarity would say she has the worst parents, but her parents love her to bits; the honor of the worst parents goes to Fluttershy, who never really understood their daughter who doesn't like to fly. They aren't abusive or anything, they just don't understand her at all and are a bit disappointed that she wandered off to Ponyville and didn't make anything of herself. They also don't say it out loud, but they don't approve of her relationship with Rainbow Dash, who they totally think is dating their daughter (and who totally isn't), but being gay is supposed to be okay nowadays even if they are uncomfortable with it so they don't ever bring it up. Ever. This will someday lead to the most awkward conversation ever.
24. Why didn’t the CMC hang out more/know each other before Call of the Cutie?
Because they were in different classes; when they went up a grade, they all ended up in the same class.
25. Is Scootaloo an orphan? Will she ever be able to fly?
No, she has parents, but they're far too boring to ever show on screen. She is handicapped, and will never be able to fly properly.
26. Will Apple Bloom’s cutie mark involve an apple in some way, even if it’s unrelated to farming or baking?
No.
27. How is Sweetie Belle’s relationship with their parents different than Rarity’s was?
Rarity and Sweetie Belle were both spoiled by their parents, but Sweetie Belle isn't old enough to be embarassed by them the way Rarity is.
Side and Background Characters:
28. Is Mr. Cake the father of the Cake twins or not?
No. But given the show's take on it, I would say that is pretty much just plain old canon.
29. Are Big Mac and Cheerilee an item, romantically?
No, they're just friends, but Cheerilee has started flirting with Big Mac playfully ever since the love potion incident, at first to mess with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, but it has gone on long enough that the CMC no longer think about it, so maybe she actually does like him but hasn't quite realized it fully yet.
30. How did Prince Blueblood get his title?
Princess Celestia knew that her sister would be returning, and was worried that when it happened, there would be trouble. She kept waiting for the stars who would free her sister from the nightmare, but they kept not showing up. Worried, she decided to make Prince Blueblood her heir, so that if something happened to her (like, say, Nightmare Moon banishing her for a bit) there would still be someone in charge, and Prince Blueblood had at the time seemed like a great choice for this - he seemed like a good, solid pony.
Likewise, Celestia was heavily recruiting ponies with stellar-related names to the academy for gifted unicorns, resulting in a ridiculous number of ponies with star-related names to go there, though it was pretty common among the nerdier folks to name their kids in reference to Starswirl the Bearded in some way. She eventually picked out Sunset Shimmer to train as she showed the most potential of any unicorn at the academy, even if she could never hope to match Luna's power.
Unfortunately, the whole thing was an unmitigated disaster; Prince Blueblood took full advantage of all the ponies who normally sucked up to Princess Celestia, and ended up becoming vain and pompous. Sunset Shimmer, likewise, became very full of herself, being the one destined to save Equestria from the forces of evil, the chosen one, picked out by Celestia herself.
Then within the space of a year Mi Amore Cadenza rose to alicornhood and Twilight Sparkle hatched the dragon's egg and proved herself to not only be vastly more powerful than Sunset Shimmer, but also to have the proper cutie mark. Celestia tried to fix things, but it was too late; Sunset Shimmer was totally the chosen one, and Celestia telling her otherwise made her ragequit Equestria. Meanwhile, Celestia took advantage of the fact that there was now another alicorn and Princessed Cadance, putting him ahead of Blueblood in the line of succession as part of something which was totally a rule (no it wasn't) that all alicorns were automatically part of the royal family.
Twilight and Shining Armor have both also been stuck into the line of succession ahead of Blueblood with various excuses, but no one actually wants Blueblood to be in charge so no one actually complains, and no one bothered to tell Prince Blueblood about the changes in the line of succession so he wouldn't throw a hissy fit.
31. Is Silver Spoon equally as bad as Diamond Tiara?
Yes, but she isn't as smart; she's a tagalong. Diamond Tiara is the brains of the operation; she's her flunky.
32. Is Zecora’s magic common among zebras?
No.
33. Why does Daring Do publish her stories as fiction?
What are you talking about? Daring Do is a totally fictional character. *coughs*
The real reason is that unlike Indiana Jones, she lacks a professorship and therefore needs to make money somehow to pay for her adventures.
34. Do you have a strong headcanon for any non-speaking or one line background ponies that you want to share?
Lyra and Bonbon are totally together.
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?)
Legally speaking, anything that can talk is considered to be a person. That being said, only things which actually live in pony society really are given full rights - the buffalo, chimera, and diamond dogs don't really have property rights and are frequently overlooked or simply ignored. Dragons, on the other hand, are completely terrifying and ponies pretty much avoid them as much as possible; Spike is considered a full person, but the random dragons in the woods are pretty much not considered as far as legal rights go but no one actually bugs them in practice unless they absolutely have to.
Other groups of people who live in large organized societies (Prance, Gryphonia) are recognized as full equals, legally, and they actually care about their territorial claims and suchlike.
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?
Dragons are mostly solitary, save when they congregate for the great dragon migration. Chimera are the same way.
Diamond Dogs live in groups, but due to their subterranean nature and love of stealing shinines are seen as undesirable vagrants.
The buffalo live in tribes which are entirely made up of buffalo, plus the odd outsider who decides to join a tribe for whatever reason, but that is very rare. Their wandering nomadic ways are not respected by the ponies.
Griffins live in Gryphonia and Prance, and some griffins live in Equestria as well.
Equestria is quite inclusive, and will allow anyone to live there, which is why there are donkeys and cows as well, but ponies don't really see them as equals; they're ugly and they don't have cutie marks. Giffins are the only thing without cutie marks that ponies really see as equals.
Zebras are weird and live really far away; no one really knows anything about them other than pictures in Equis Geographic which are pretty terrible, but colts sometimes hide them under their beds to look at their unshorn fetlocks.
The Saddle Arabians are mostly Arabians, but there are some others who live with them.
No one else lives with the changelings because they are creepy monsters as far as everyone else is concerned.
I have no idea where minotaurs are from.
37. Are minotaurs related to cows at all?
No one knows where minotaurs came from; the most common rumor is that they're a creation of discord, as they are freaky things that walk on two legs, something nothing else was thought to do until Spike was hatched and showed that young dragons are also bipedal.
38. Do all zebras rhyme?
No, that's Zecora's special talent. But I will be terribly disappointed if another zebra shows up and either doesn't rhyme, or doesn't lampshade Zecora's rhyming.
39. Do zebra cutie marks work the same way as pony cutie marks?
They do, but are much more vague and symbolic in nature.
40. Do any species have types of magic, other than ponies and zebras?
Dragons have magic, and indeed, that is canon (Spike). A lot of other creatures have some degree of innate magic, such as Breezies and griffins, but it is mostly in the form of passive magic rather than active magic - they ARE magic, they don't cast magical spells, though griffins are capable of many of the same intrinsic sort of magic that pegasi can use.
Oh, and of course Changelings have magic, but everyone hates them.
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?
Cultural; the buffalo are nomadic and don't like being in one place all the time.
Headcanon and You:
42. Do you consider official sources other than the show (comics, card game text, movies, novels, etc.) to be canon?
No. It contradicts itself way too much. I do accept Cadance's ascension story, though, at least in broad strokes, mostly because McCarthy said that they consider it canon for the show. I also consider some of Faust and McCarthy's Word of God to be canon, but if they contradicted it in show I wouldn't mind overmuch.
43. Do you have one headcanon that you always use, or do you switch depending on projects?
I switch constantly, and don't always write within headcanon at all. I think that all of the mane six are straight, for instance, which means that any story I write where they aren't is outside of my actual headcanon.
44. Can you easily accept the headcanons of different writers? Do you prefer when stories match your headcanon?
I actually strongly dislike the idea of headcanon in general, and I'm not terribly attached to my own; what I listed here is just speculation, I don't REALLY believe in most of it very strongly.
A few things do bother me as being part of the "real show's canon" but really I don't mind if people do stupid things as I can just consider it to be an AU or whatever; I think when people think that their headcanon is "real" too much it is really kind of annoying.
The only thing that REALLY bothers me is when people present characters as being wildly out of character, or directly contradict canon (other than Daring Don't and Power Ponies, which people are free to ignore without penalty).
45. Is there a part of your headcanon that you wish was more popular among writers?
That Daring Do was a fictional character. But that's the SHOW'S writers. 
Other than that, not really. Variety is the spice of life.
46. Is there a popular piece of headcanon that other writers use that you dislike?
Everyone being bisexual or gay, unless you assume that Ponyville is San Francisco and it is just that one town which is super gay.
And Twilight Sparkle doesn't know, and doesn't realize that Celestia sent her there on the assumption that she was gay.
Oh, and I'm with bats on wingboners being dumb. Pegasi using their wings expressively is cute; wingboners aren't. Though pegasi spreading their wings to show off (kind of like how sometimes guys or girls will straighten up/show better/different posture if an attractive member of the opposite sex comes by) is totally okay, that's rather different.
47. Have you ever written a story or blogpost just to explain some part of your headcanon (other than this one)?
Uhm... I don't think so...
Oh wait, there was this:
48. Does your headcanon influence things like your favorite pony, ship, or episode?
Not at all, because it is speculation more than anything.
49. Would it bother you if the show proved part of your headcanon wrong? Any specific piece that would really bother you to lose?
The biggest thing that would bother me would be if Applejack's parents weren't dead. They are so very, very dead. It has never been explicitly shown in the show, but I feel like contradicting that at this point would be very messed up and create way too many problems.
The princesses not having ascended originally, and being many thousands of years old, would also bother me.
Anything implying Starswirl the Bearded was the contemporary of Luna and Celestia as anything other than an extremely old pony would also be bad; he has to predate them due to Clover the Clever and their non-appearance in Hearth's Warming.
And if ponies age at a significantly different rate than humans (i.e. adult ponies are like 10 or something), that would be very dumb.
50. Is there something that wasn't asked about here, but you feel like you need to explain to everyone?
Celestia totally sent Twilight Sparkle two tickets in Ticket Master as a means of encouraging her to get a date. It failed.
Anyway, I hope you folks enjoyed that.
In other news, one of my stories is presently having its first half being read over by folks, so hopefully that will be coming soon to a FIMFiction near you.
These are good questions and equally good answers. Daring Do is so real, it hurts! Ok, doesn't hurt me, I like it, but it does bother a lot of people.
Ugh. I had forgotten wingboners.
Well, we got a flashback to Sweetie Belle's fifth birthday, so that's clearly not the case.
And I kind of like the idea of minotaurs coming out of nowhere. Like suddenly there was an extra sapient species hanging around after Discord got stoned.
Obsolescence has informed me that the process which lead to this blog entry - i.e. asking people to answer a set of questions in their blog as some sort of chain-blogging thing - is not allowed on the site. He said it is okay to leave this up, but to not do it again - this sort of thing is more of a blog-comments or group thing.
So don't get any ideas, ya hear?
MFW I realize I never even thought of that:
Been reading so many of these...
Glad to see I'm not the only one for whom this doesn't quite sit right with. In fact, I've seen it mentioned several times. I feel a little more confident that I could probably get away with just ignoring it if Daring Do came up.
2002662
I've heard that theory several times, and you gotta admit, it makes a lot of sense.