Matrilineage of the Pie Sisters · 1:43pm Jul 15th, 2014
The Pie family is in general matrilineally descended from the half-mythical Surprise, a formerly-emmortal Pegasus Pony mare from Paradise Estate who was driven off by Discord at the moment of his Awakening 1000 years BTH. She was famously commanded to "Go, farm rocks," by the Chaos God, and in consequence the Pies have become extraordinarily-competent rock farmers. That Surprise died of old age sometime in the late 10th century BTH.
The important part of the matrilineage of the Pie Sisters (Maud, Claire, Pinkie, Marble and Limestone) begins with
Sweetie Pie (1346-1471): An exceptionally good and kind Earth Pony mare, possessed of a fondness for and a skill for making sweet foods which would be passed on to her descendants. She was one of the Friends of Paradise from an early age, and in 1364 when only 18 Paradise sired a Daughter upon her. Sweetie Pie had a very long and pleasant life; she later enjoyed a happy marriage with numerous children, and was for much of the 15th century the matriarch of the Pie Clan around Nickerlite. Great-great-great-grandmother of the Pie Sisiters. Her Daughter of Paradise was
Florinda ("Fluffy") Pie (1365-1405): Kind, loving and rather innocent like all the Daughters of Paradise, Florinda was distinguished from most of them by her keen intelligence and interest in mundane matters. She used her precognition to aid her family and friends in various matters. When she was only 15-16 she wooed and won Pure Gold (1322-1405), the first cousin of the very same Golden Heart who was the husband of Apple Bloom the Elder. They were happily married for twenty years before his accidental death in 1405. Upon his death, she put her affairs to order, lay down, and willed herself to die to join him -- all Daughters of Paradise are capable of willing themselves to death, but this is very rarely done. Great-great-grandmother of the Pie Sisters. Her daughter was
Surprise ("The Nth") Pie (1387-1489): Greatly resembled an Earth Pony version of the legendary appearance of the first Surprise, she was (unusually for the matrilineage) rather wild in her youth, causing a couple of scandals before settling down to marry Reliable ("Relly") Oaktree (1375-1488), who was every bit as solid and reliable as his name suggested, in 1409. The marriage was a happy one. Surprise the Nth was notable for her high intelligence and considerable mathematical talent: she studied advanced mathematics in her spare time and authored more than one published paper on the mathematical structure of spacetime. A year after Relly's death by old age, she finally completed a particularly subtle paper and died that very night in her sleep -- many held that she had done exactly the same thing as her mother Florinda, and willingly gone to join her husband. Great-grandmother of the Pie Sisters, and the first in the matrilineage who got to know them. Her daughter was
Golden ("Goldie") Pie (1419-): Scientist, scholar, and mage, who mostly practices as a midwife. She is an extraordinarily-competent midwife. A highly-intelligent, determined and well-educated mare who has served as the mentor to many, including all five of the Pie Sisters, and the Great and Powerful Trixie. She has a strong moral character and a sarcastic sense of humor. Married Jasper Quartz (1419-1493) in 1447. Grandmother of the Pie Sisters. Her daughter was
Cloudy ("The Virgin Cloudy") Quartz Pie (1456-): Scholar and poet, and the mother of the Pie Sisters. A rather serious and sober mare to outsiders, who reveals her warmer and merrier side only to loved ones. She is annoyed by her nickname as it is completely inaccurate; she did conceive the three eldest Pie Sisters (Maud (b. 1476), Claire and Pinkie (twins b. 1481) immaculately with Paradise but then in 1482 married her long-beloved Igneous Rock and conceived Marble (b. 1483) and Limestone (b. 1485) with him in the usual fashion. Very happily married to Igenous, and with him owns and operates the Pie Rock Farm.
Makes sense that someone "The Nth" would have a knack for math. Oh, and after she got married, I guess we could say she was living the life of Relly?
Even though she could will herself to death, Pinkie never tried it while in her miserable Pinkamena alter ego?
You sure love giving your story world details. I love they're details ABOUT THE PONIES!
2287515 I'm not sure Jordan's ever used "Pinkamena" as a separate personality or indicated that she'd do something like that. I'm sure he'll correct me if I'm wrong.
2287881 Point taken. But has she ever tried it in a depressed state? What kept her from doing it?
2288355 I'll let Jordan take that one. He knows his Pinkie best!
2288856 True.
2288909
2288355
Ok.
The Daughters of Paradise are generally not suicidal.
Florinda Pie was very much an exception, as she was an exception in many ways -- exceptionally-intelligent in mundane terms, exceptionally-interested in sex (many of the Daughters are lifelong virgins), and exceptional in that she fell in love with a mortal stallion (the Daughters are often either asexual or lesbians). She fell very deeply in love with Pure Gold at a very early age (she was around 15 when they wed) and had centered her life completely around him and his happiness. When he died she saw very little point in continuing to live in the mortal world; she was certain they would be re-united in Paradise.
Surprise the Nth Pie did not necessarily choose to die. She was 102 years old when she died in her sleep -- while that's not as old for an Earth Pony as it is for a Human that is still a great age. She died a year after the death of her husband Relly. This may have been an exercise of the same power her mother had, or it may have simply been an old mare who no longer cared to make the effort to keep on living. This has been known to happen with old Human couples separated by death -- one dies, the other soon follows.
It is definitely true that both Fluffy and Surprise loved their respective husbands, Pure Gold and Relly, very dearly and deeply.
Note that Surprise's daughter Goldie has outlived her husband Jasper, whom she loved dearly and deeply too, seven years by the time of Luna's Return, and she is still capable of acting quickly and decisively in dangerous situations four years later. Goldie has many responsibilities with which to busy herself.
Pinkie Pie is not suicidal. She is sometimes depressed when she has a bad day or set of days, and she doesn't always handle depression very well, but this is not the same thing as wanting to kill herself. Pinkie Pie is immature -- she's a highly neotonous mare who is 19-23 during the series so far, and who acts more as if she is around 12-16 during this time period. Think of her slumps as adolescent angst -- psychologically, she's still very much a teenager. She has a very important job to keep her engaged with life.
Could she will herself to death? Yes, probably, and the same is true of Maud and Claire. But none of them want to do so. They don't have a good reason. And no, getting jilted / abused / wounded etc. would not be a good enough reason -- any of these events would hurt, depress and pain them, but they very much want to live.
Protracted inescapable torture might do it, especially if they feared revealing or doing something that would betray their fundamental purposes. But "inescapable" has special meanings when we talk about three mares, two of whom can teleport and one of whom can bite or kick her way through any known material substance.
The Daughters of Paradise are manifestations of love and life and laughter, not a squad of suicide bombers or the stars of depressing Swedish art films.
2289166
That made me crack up. And I know they aren't, but I'm not sure if the others got depressed like that or if Pinkie was a special case because of that. I was just wondering. Thank you for the clarification.
2287783
I'm glad you liked my proposed matrilineage for Pinkie and her sisters. Note that this isn't a true genealogy, as there are many brothers and sisters of each of the mares on this list being excluded, with only the ones from whom Pinkie is descended by maternal line being included. I also hope you liked the personalities I sketched for them -- Goldie, of course, has already been in several of my stories, but Surprise, Florinda and Sweetie Pie haven't been. All the mares but Florinda survived to know Goldie, too. So did Relly. Sweetie also had a husband later on, whom I haven't named, and a whole branch of the Pies are descended from them.
2287881
I may or may not do the split-personality thing. I think Pinkie was at least close to giving herself Multiple-Personality Disorder in "Party of One" -- the reason why she could inflict this on herself is that she's a Reality Warper. I liked Alex's take on this in Reharmonization -- you should read that sometime.
2287485
Hee hee, yep! And she was relly happy too!
2289166
2288909 Thanks for explaining this! I thought it would be something like this. I've certainly heard of (and known) both humans and animals at the end of their lives who quietly decide "this is my time." Phillipe Aries, in "The Hour of Our Death," even suggests that this was far more common in pre-modern human cultures. (I highly recommend that book, by the way.)
[What follows is my interpretation, not necessarily Jordan's].
Pinkie Pie is *bursting* with life. However depressed, discouraged or whatever she might be, she is not simply going to lie down and die (especially considering her backstory in Nightmares Are Tragic.) It mocks laughter, which at its root is filled with the iron-willed intent to live.
There might come a day when Pinkie decided it was time to leave the best party ever for an even better one, but she's not even close to being there.
2289458 I like that explanation.
2289458
I agree. Pinkie Pie, in particular, is an extremely tough and determined mare, and one who loves life. It would take something extraordinary to make her give up: in context, the destruction of her whole world didn't make her give up. She was defeated, but she never surrendered.
Something I just caught--
"Surprise?" and you probably meant "immortal," right? I caught a few more "Suprises."
2293438
Ooh, yes I did mean "Surprise" -- though I also meant "emmortal."
"Emmortal" is a useful term created (as far as I know) by Brian M. Stableford to describe a being which can be killed by normal violence, but will never die of natural causes. As long as the Rainbow of Harmony was intact and they remained within the Veil of Paradise Estate, the Ponies of Paradise Estate were "emmortal." When the Rainbow was broken (by Discord) they resumed aging.
Surprise, the ancestor of the Pies, had been commanded (through geas and teleportation) by Discord to leave before the actual battle began, for the reason that Discord liked her and didn't want to fight her. It's not obvious if it was by chance or through his will that she wound up in a place where she could make a pretty good life for herself. It is true that Discord never destroyed the Pies, even when he could have many times over in the thousand years of his rule: he seems to have gone easy on those whom he would have considered her sedentary herd under the old social rules of Paradise Estate. This may also be true of many of the direct descendants of the other old Paradise Estate Ponies as well, and may be one reason why their lineages have tended to survive.
2293438
Ooh, yes I did mean "Surprise" -- though I also meant "emmortal."
"Emmortal" is a useful term created (as far as I know) by Brian M. Stableford to describe a being which can be killed by normal violence, but will never die of natural causes. As long as the Rainbow of Harmony was intact and they remained within the Veil of Paradise Estate, the Ponies of Paradise Estate were "emmortal." When the Rainbow was broken (by Discord) they resumed aging.
Surprise, the ancestor of the Pies, had been commanded (through geas and teleportation) by Discord to leave before the actual battle began, for the reason that Discord liked her and didn't want to fight her. It's not obvious if it was by chance or through his will that she wound up in a place where she could make a pretty good life for herself. It is true that Discord never destroyed the Pies, even when he could have many times over in the thousand years of his rule: he seems to have gone easy on those whom he would have considered her sedentary herd under the old social rules of Paradise Estate. This may also be true of many of the direct descendants of the other old Paradise Estate Ponies as well, and may be one reason why their lineages have tended to survive.
So is Pinkie Pie a direct matrilineal descendant of the original Surprise? That'd be cool...
Speaking of her, is Surprise the Nth a reincarnation of The First? Is Pinkie? I know that Pinkie had an incarnation running around Paradise during its reign of The World That Never Was, but you never mention any other incarnations.
Oh, and when was Paradise Estate established, in relation to the Cataclysm?
2296168
Pinkie Pie is a direct matrilineal descendant of the original Surprise. She's not actually as far as I know a direct reincarnation of any of the Surprises. Though she is of Pinkie Pie of the World That Was Lost (G3 Pinkie Pie) -- most definitely, as she has some of her memories (though not in readily accessible form, but it's why she "recognized" Twilight and sometimes thinks of her as Minty.
Not sure about the Surprises.
Surprise the Nth, incidentally, was a genuinely strange Pony. Many of Pinkie's matrilineage were. Sweetie and Cloudy are the normal ones. Goldie would be a bit of weirdo by most standards, but is fairly conventional by the standards of Pinkie's immediate matrilineal ancestors.