• Member Since 28th Aug, 2011
  • offline last seen Saturday

Cold in Gardez


Stories about ponies are stories about people.

More Blog Posts186

  • 1 week
    A town for the fearful dead

    What is that Gardez up to? Still toiling away at his tabletop world. Presented, for those with interest, the town of Cnoc an Fhomhair.

    Cnoc an Fhomhair (Town)

    Population: Varies – between two and five thousand.
    Industry: Trade.
    Fae Presence: None.

    Read More

    5 comments · 217 views
  • 12 weeks
    The Dragon Game

    You know the one.


    A sheaf of papers, prefaced with a short letter, all written in a sturdy, simple hand.

    Abbot Stillwater,

    Read More

    7 comments · 536 views
  • 31 weeks
    EFN Book Nook!

    Hey folks! I should've done this days ago, apparently, but the awesome Twilight's Book Nook at Everfree Northwest has copies of Completely Safe Stories!

    Read More

    9 comments · 565 views
  • 34 weeks
    A new project, and an explanation!

    Hey folks,

    Alternate title for this blog post: I'm Doing a Thing (and I'm looking for help)

    I don't think anyone is surprised that my pony writing has been on a bit of a hiatus for a while, and my presence on this site is mostly to lurk-and-read rather than finish my long-delayed stories. What you might not know, though, is what I've been doing instead of pony writing.

    Read More

    26 comments · 991 views
  • 78 weeks
    Short Story: The Sculpture

    This is not a story about ponies. No ponies here! Go elsewhere for ponies.

    But this is a story for a D&D adventure I am writing. And I suppose it's also a story about what it means to have purpose, where we get that purpose form, and what happens when that purpose vanishes. People things, in other words.


    The flower turns its face to the sun.

    Read More

    10 comments · 792 views
Apr
19th
2014

50 Questions! And a quick story update · 2:29pm Apr 19th, 2014

So you may have noticed this "50 Questions" thing bouncing around. It started over with bookplayer, an author I hadn't run into before this, but in just the past few days I've had several reasons to see what she's about, and I'm pretty impressed. She has a neat list of blog topics over at his user page -- go hit her up.

Anyway, the 50 Questions thing. Sadly, I only answered 17 of them this time around, but I'm not due for another chapter update for a few days, and I need some way to remind everyone I'm still alive as long as I'm in Afghanistan. So, without further ado:

1. How old are Celestia and Luna?

Depends on the story. In The First Light of Dawn and it's upcoming coda, the princesses are both ancient, tens of thousands of years old, at least. They predate pony civilization. In Lost Cities, they're in the range of 2,500 years old -- very old, but recorded history extends before their existence. Where they came from, of course, is still a mystery.

2. How old is Cadance?

I've never actually had to deal with Cadence in my stories, but I'd put her in the range of 50-100. I don't know if she's
as ageless as Celestia or Luna, but she's doesn't age at the same rate as everyone else.

3. Were Celestia and Luna always alicorns, or did they ascend?

Again, depends on the story. In TFLoD, Celestia was a star who flew too close to Equestria, and fell in love with the ancient, uncivilized ponies she saw there. She tried to live with them, but her heat set forests ablaze and melted the mountains. In desperation, she begged the other stars for aid, and they transformed her into the first alicorn. In Lost Cities, they just appeared one day, nopony knows wherefrom.

4. Are Cadance and Twilight immortal?

Nope. Slow-aging, but not immortal. They won't spend forever attending their friends' funerals.

5. Have there been other alicorns in the past?

I want to say no, but I'm going to leave myself some wiggle room.

6. How much authority do Celestia and Luna have in Equestria?

In theory, unlimited. In practice, Celestia has ceded much of her power to the government, to the extend that her role is largely ceremonial, or she exists only to make decisions that noone else feels qualified to make.

7. Does Shining Armor rule The Crystal Empire along side of Cadance?

Nope. He's Captain of the Guard, which is a snazzy title, but actual leadership duties fall on Cadence's shoulders. Obviously he can pout and withhold sex if he thinks she's doing something wrong, but that's never worked for more than a few days.

8. Other than Twilight, Luna, and Cadance, what relationships have been important to Celestia in her lifetime (students, close friends, lovers, family)?

I see Celestia as having had a succession of students, much in the manner of Twilight. When she does take lovers, they tend to be mature stallions (or, sometimes, mares) with whom she can have nice conversations.

Luna's a little less discrete when it comes to such things. She looks for passionate ponies moreso than interesting companions, and has never had a student last more than a few years.

Ultimately, their closest companions will always be each other. There may be decades (or even the odd 1,000-years) when they don't speak, but they always come back to each other. They have no choice.

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)?

Absolutely! This is one of my favorite bits of headcanon. I explore it in several stories, most notably Lost Cities, which examines each of the tribes' ideal cities, all of which, in isolation, failed. The unicorns grew haughty and declared themselves highborn, using the earth ponies as slaves. The pegasi grew warlike and insular, eventually treating the other tribes as entirely different races. The earth ponies were, perhaps, the most normal, but when the chance came, most abandoned their ancestral homes to follow Celestia and Luna to rejoin the other tribes.

Salvation looks at the tribes from a more personal perspective. In modern times, it's the pegasi who are the most different -- unicorns and earth ponies, while still keeping to different cultures, have managed to blend together. Pegasi, though, are just different. They are wilder, emotional, flightier (in every sense of the word), quicker to anger and quicker to forgive.

Pegasi families are looser. When pegasi foals reach adolecence, they start to drift away and eventually leave the nest. They don't form durable family bonds except with their mates.

This is reflected in the show, I like to think. Of the nine characters we see most (the mane 6 and the CMC), three are pegasi. Consider what we know of their family situations:

- We saw Rainbow Dash's father for a few seconds in a flashback

- We've never seen Fluttershy's family. Apparently she fell out of the clouds one day and decided to live on the ground, and nopony thought it was worth coming to look for her

- Scootaloo has no family and lives under a bridge, as far as we know

Every single other character has family that we've actually seen on the show in current time. All the earth ponies and unicorns have families they live with or visit. But none of the pegasi. Please note, this doesn't make them sad or lonely -- they have friends, they just don't care about having families, not like the other tribes.

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?

Cloudsdale imports all its food, so there's not much difference between it and a ground-based city that ships in all its food. The only difference is that pegasi will eat fish without hesitation, something unicorns and earth ponies view as unappetizing or disgusting.

11. Can all unicorns learn all spells, given the time and effort spent practicing them, or is magical talent usually limited in some way?

I'd like to think unicorn magic is much like human skill at sports. There's a certain degree of genetics at work, but ultimately most humans can excel at most sports if they have the time, energy and dedication.

12. Earth pony magic: Does it exist? What is it?

Sort of. The Glass Blower is the only real exploration of this topic I've attempted, and in it earth ponies' magic consists of being extremely good at their particular talent, to the point that the results are essentially magic. The eponymous glass blower of the tale can make glass artwork so real that it literally comes to life or displays other magical attributes.

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?

Did we ever get canon names for Twilight's family, aside from her brother?

Anyway, I tend to view the theme-names as an earth pony thing.

14. How much formal schooling is an average, middle class pony expected to complete?

Depends on their station in life. Unicorns, who tend to urban areas and professional jobs, tend to stay in school until they reach their majority or become an apprentice. Earth ponies run the gamut, from foals who go all the way through university to get their doctorates, to ponies who start working on the farm as soon as they can push a plow.

Pegasi are lucky to finish a few years before they hie off on some journey. As such, pegasi education is more periodic, with things like flight school or weather school offered whenever a pegasus shows up for it. Pegasi who grow up on the ground typically make it a few more years before they leave.

I mean, think back to when you were in school: if you had wings and could fly away at any time, how long would you stick around?

15. What’s the average lifespan for a pony? At what age is a pony expected to be independent of their parents?

I'm going to say it's about the same lifespan as a human, 80 years if in good health. Earth ponies also tend to live longer, perhaps on the order of 100+ years. Earth ponies and unicorns are considered minors until about 16, while pegasi are considered adults as soon as they fly away and don't come back (13-14, usually).

16. Are there roughly an equal number of male and female ponies?

There are maybe slightly more mares than stallions (perhaps a 55-45 split), but pony society is matriarchal, so most ponies in positions of power, influence or wealth are female. That's why we see more of them in the show.

17. How informed are most ponies about things that happen in other parts of Equestria? What about other parts of the world?

Pony society is pretty well integrated, thanks to mass transit, good governance, and an entire third of their race that can fly cross-country in a few days time. Magic probably plays some part as well, but I've never had to investigate that in my stories.


Oh, I promised a story update, didn't I? Well, the next Salvation chapter is about 6k along, and it's looking like it'll be a monster -- 15k or so would be my guess. I expect it'll be ready in two weeks, give or take.

Besides that, I have a few neat short-story ideas bouncing around in my head. This seems to happen when I deploy; it's inspirational, though I wouldn't recommend it solely for that reason.

The Wind Thief's sequel is on tap after Salvation finishes, and for any fans of The First Light of Dawn, I think you'll be seeing the long-awaited coda before I get back to the states.

Report Cold in Gardez · 1,007 views · Story: Salvation ·
Comments ( 18 )

:rainbowhuh: Um... Bookplayer is a woman. But I'm sure she'd be pleased to hear you think well of her.

8. Other than Twilight, Luna, and Cadance, what relationships have been important to Celestia in her lifetime (students, close friends, lovers, family)?
I see Celestia as having had a succession of students, much in the manner of Twilight. When she does take lovers, they tend to be mature stallions (or, sometimes, mares) with whom she can have nice conversations.
Luna's a little less discrete when it comes to such things. She looks for passionate ponies moreso than interesting companions, and has never had a student last more than a few years.
Ultimately, their closest companions will always be each other. There may be decades (or even the odd 1,000-years) when they don't speak, but they always come back to each other. They have no choice.

You know, this is the first answer to this question that actually makes sense to me.

-Scott

Scootaloo has no family and lives under a bridge, as far as we know

We've seen her room this season; she's not a homeless orphan, stop banging that drum people.:twilightangry2:
fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/348/8/9/mlp_spoilers__scootaloo_s_room_by_bdgs-d6xx3vj.png

Nice to hear your takes of some of these questions. Also, good to know you're safe and sound.

Looking forwards to more Salvation, and whatever else that you turn out.

while pegasi are considered adults as soon as they fly away and don't come back (13-14, usually).

I imagine this cultural vagueness must be a headache for law enforcement, lol.

[Edit] 2024404
Wow, Scootaloo really decked out that space under the bridge.

That is an interesting take on earth pony magic.

2024431 I can see the CMC: "Gee, Scoots. You've even got a diving board in your bedroom. This is so cool!"

Huh. That's an interesting spin on things. Makes sense, though.

For the record, Twilight's parents have been officially named Twilight Velvet and Night Light.

2024431
I don't want to be the "stop having fun" guy, but we also saw the outside of her house.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2013/12/14/496772__safe_rainbow+dash_animated_scootaloo_sweetie+belle_apple+bloom_hub+logo_hat_flying_season+4.gif
Sorry, but Scootahobo is something of a pet peeve.

I've always figured there's a couple explanations for the apparent gender imbalance (since in nature, gender imbalances will correct themselves.)
Without being explicitly matriarchal, either, since I have trouble believing that there's significant legal gender barriers in the current era (perhaps back in the tribal period things were different.)

1) Stallions are homebodies. They aren't as outgoing or adventurous as mares on average (with exceptions such as Flim and Flam, Cheese Sandwich, Sombra, and so on.) Therefore, the huge numbers of mares we see in the streets are balanced by the stallions at home taking care of foals or polishing their sports trophies or adding that second porch. Or being guards.

2) Unmarried stallions and unmarried mares live in separate parts of town habitually.
This is a bit of an odd one, I admit it's mostly because near Rarity's place we saw a large number of males hanging around.
~ Of course, it's just as likely (if not more) that instead of that being the stallion part of town, those are admirers of Rarity!

3) Stallions take jobs that take up a lot of their time.
We see that the Royal Guard is pretty much exclusively stallions. We saw that the engineers and conductors on trains are all stallions.
Perhaps stallions tend to throw themselves into their work and aren't seen mucking about as much as mares do.

Agreed for deployment being inspiring! I can only imagine the deserts and mountains in Afghanistan. I only made it as far as NTC in California, but it was almost a religious experience! Stay safe and keep your head down! Come back to us.

It started over with bookplayer, an author I hadn't run into before this

...revealing that CiG doesn't usually read my blog. :duck:

Funny how it's possible to spend so much time on fimfiction, always seeing the same usernames, and feel like I know everyone, yet now and then something reminds me that I'm living in a small frontier community in an unnamed territory of fimfiction, ignorant of the goings-on in the big population centers like Port Ship, Clopville, Adventureland, HiE City, and Troll Town. (Which is what makes fimfiction tolerable. :rainbowwild:)

Always glad to hear you're still alive. :twilightsmile:

The First Light of Dawn and it's upcoming coda

I like these words. These are good words.

- Scootaloo has no family and lives under a bridge, as far as we know

Well, we know she has a room.

I mean, think back to when you were in school: if you had wings and could fly away at any time, how long would you stick around?

That depends. Can I get away with only skipping out on English class? Or will the School Police tie me up and force me to attend everything if they catch me after the first time I leave?

Don't you think it's interesting the different stances different people take just on the having of headcanons? Some give confident answers even when they're making them up on the spot, and some hem and haw and don't dare go beyond what they can strongly argue based on canon. Some hold their ideas strongly and will not change them for any reason, and some don't even have beliefs in isolation since they create contradictory headcanons as convenient for various projects. And most fall in between, of course. It can be almost as diverse as the content of headcanons, but it seems like a lot of people don't pay any attention to the variation.

2024676
I dunnoooo'... that could still be a really tricked out bridge... you can see the wooden railing going out to either side of it and everything.

2025111

Is bookplayer one of your regulars? I do tend to read your blogs, especially the ones with a literary bent, but nothing ever really tweaked me to her name before the other day.

2024334

Er, right. I'll go fix that.

2024676
2024404
2025115

We saw her in a room for a few seconds. For all we know that's her room at the orphanage.

But no, seriously, I get that she has a house. It's just always struck me as odd that it's the pegasi that we never seem to get any family stories for.

I can sort of get the people who make Shining and Cadance's romance creepy because all alicorns must be a thousand years old, but what does merely making her Edward Cullen old accomplish? Also, why is everybody against Shining being anything more than the Crystal Princess' boyfriend? Seriously, I haven't found anyone answering there questions who gives him any power.

2027522 I don't expect you to read all my blogs. :ajsmug: bookplayer and I don't comment much on each others' blogs; we blog at each other.

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