Apr
22nd
2017
Pony Lifespans · 5:31pm Apr 22nd, 2017
One thing is clear – MLP type magical ponies don't have the short lifespan of natural ponies, but how long are they actually? So far there's no definitive answer, but the best clue comes from Granny Smith and the establishment of Ponyville. As she was a filly when the town was established, that plus some other clues have led some people to establish her age well into her second century. I'm fine with this idea, but I'd like to be able to establish some consistent canon for my stories. So what do you think pony lifespans are typically? And while we're at it, how about griffons and changelings? I'm interested in your thoughts!
I thought that episode said that Ponyville was founded 300 years ago...if I'm not remembering that wrong, that would put Granny into the early years of her fourth century.
Personally, I've assumed pony lifespans normally being 250 to 300 years, which would make Granny exceptional even then. Going along with that, I would think griffons would live up to 200 to 250, barring something external. Changelings may be a special case. They may live as long as those two races, but there are few species of insects that seem to live indefinitely as long as there's enough food and nothing kills them.
4506016 I believe it was stated that she was there when it was founded 100 years ago, and she was in her early adult years around that time.
And joke's on you, Gold, Granny hasn't even hit her midlife crisis yet!
4506023 Ah, well it's been a while since I saw that episode.
4506028 Same. I could very well be wrong. Someone can feel free to correct me if that is the case.
In my personal headcannon, ponies' lifespans are different for every phenotype based on how they channel their magic. Earth ponies are always channeling their magic throughout their bodies and can live to be 300 years old, and do quite often. Pegasi still channel their magic through their bodies, though not as much, so they tend to only live to be about 200-250. Unicorns only channel through their horns, so they're doomed to rarely make it into their hundreds.
Griffons don't channel at all, putting their lifespans into the late seventies, if that, making them one of the shortest living races.
Changelings literally feed off of the magic in emotions, so I believe that if a changeling is well fed through they're entire life, they can accompany the alicorns into the eternities.
Speaking of alicorns, Luna and Cadence are probably the worst off, Luna having had her magic corrupted for a long period of time and Cadence never really using hers. Celestia had to channel all kinds of magic for a thousand years just to keep things running (although most of that was unicorn through the horn style) putting her second in the races. Twilight Sparkle on the other hoof is the Alicorn of Magic, and the most likely to truly learn how to channel both her pegasi and earth pony parts, giving her the best shot at true immortality.
Tl;dr, from longest to shortest:
Twilight Sparkle (Immortal?)
Celestia (Close second)
A Well Fed Changeling (???)
Luna (Easy Late Thousands)
Cadence (Thousands, Maybe)
Earth Ponies (Early 300s)
Pegasi (Easy 200s)
Unicorns (Maybe 100)
Griffons (70's if lucky)
Anywho, Ta-Ta!
this reminds me of a strange story where they discovered that Earth ponies could extend their lifespan by absorbing the "life force" from plants...
What if: ponies can enhance their lifespan due to magic( as severel writters and comments point). But we see only one case like granny smith due to a high dead rate ( ursa.minor and cerberus skippinh work every other day) or/and low natality (e.g. Due to gender unbalance) very few ponies reach their full age.
This would be make sense in a sociaty with low tech ( lets avoid the sporadic teach that hasbro throws when in need of a reference or selling more toys)
4506061
That certainly is interesting.
I have had a somewhat similar headcannon:
Earth Ponies: ~300-400 years due to their passive connection to the earth
Unicorns: ~100-150 years due to telomere damage from actively using magic.
Pegasi and Griffins: ~50-70 years due to extremely strenuous lifestyles and stresses put on their cardio systems. Sedentary pegasi like Fluttershy would probably live to late 70s, active pegasi like Dash and Spitfire would be lucky to see 55.
Changelings: variable
Queen/King: ~300-400 years
Individual Changeling Drone: 5-8 years
Hive Mind Super-organism: functionally immortal as long as there is a continuity of new queens/kings
for my head canon the 5 alicorns (yes this includes flurry heart ) are ageless not immortal they can be killed but it's going to take a lot . flurry will mature at a normal rate but will slow down around puberty. earth ponies are the longest lived as proposed by pinkie when she had plans for her parents 500th anniversary but due to illness and accidents 300 is rare .
Unicorns cheat, age spells rejuvenation rituals and such would put them at about 200 but again magical accidents can alter the statistical results.
the pegasi are the shortest flying in a energy intensive and few see there first century but some do live up to 200 years before they pass
griffins ,minotaurs ,zebra ,and the deer all can live to be nearly 200 but very few live that long due to cultural views on age altering magic "tan't natural" as applejack would say
the changeling queen can sustain her self like the alicorns living centuries or thousands of years provided the food is available the drones however my guess would be how useful that drone is if you have high functioning ,independent drones then a 100 years would be in keeping with a long term infiltrator who could be called back to the hive before natural causes could reveal him as for cannon fodder for the invasion 10-20 years so replacements could be hatched i doubt there is a changeling old folks home .
4506072
This one?
I find it depressing to think that different characters significant enough to have a name have significantly different life expectancies (Alicorns and changeling queens being an exception, since it's "the norm" that depresses me, not individuals), so I'm not a fan of tribe-related variations (It prevents me from getting emotionally invested in the story) and I'm of the opinion that "roughly the same as humans or longer is better" (short is depressing and too long is hard to relate to).
Also, having read a lot of fics, I've seen more than one fic explain Granny Smith's lifespan as "eating a lotta zap apples has life-extending properties".
I personally like to look at the life spans of ponies closer to humans rather than such longer life spans. In terms of Earth Ponies I like to believe they're 100~120 years old and that Granny Smith is the exception, not the rule.
Earth Ponies live longer in comparison to the other two because of their connection to the earth and because they tend to be more physically inclined in comparison to other ponies, farmers especially.
Granny Smith lives in a environmentally friendly area, had lots of exercise and ate a lot of healthy food.
Between Pegasi and Unicorns I never really decided which lived longer so I'll just say about the same.
Alicorns? Celestia and Luna are special and immortal. Twilight, Cadance and Flurry ~150.
Never really thought beyond that.
I say the average pony might live over 100. I discount the Winter Wrap up since that was them still feelign out the world.
Actually, she's only like 70, but Ponyville is hundreds of years old. She had a time travel accident, and "Granny" is just Apple family shorthand missing about 4 "greats" in front of it.
Okay, here's my two cents worth...
Earth Ponies can safely expect 200 years, with 300 being like centenarians in humans.
Unicorns about 150, unless they have access to rejuvenation spells
Pegasi I would say 150 at most, with few getting that far. If they last over 100, they take things REAL easy.
Changelings, hmmm. A drone maybe a decade. A queen, several hundred at most. Despite love, emogel, and other things, bodies can and will just wear out.
Griffins, my guess will be like pegasi, but even fewer living that long due to their lifestyle.
Alicorns: fuhgeddaboutit. They can be KILLED with a lot of effort, but DIE? Won't happen unless they really, truly WANT it.
Anything else, I would have to say insufficient data for meaningful response.
the main thing you have to keep in mind is each race of ponies uses their magic for just about everything.
Earth Pony (EP): since they can make plants grow with their magic, that would make them long lived because their magic keeps them alive. but just like anybody, their bodies slowly stop making magic over time. so for an EP, middle age would be roughly 175, with death happening anywhere from 250 to 350.
Unicorn Pony (UP): just like the EP, their magic is the key, the more powerful they are, the longer they can live without using spells. A normal UP would be about 200, someone like Twilight (before she ascended) would probably reach 300 if not more.
Pegasus Pony (PP): now here it would be different. because of the way the PP are, they would have a shorter lifespan, just like birds they motabalism just run fast. so 100 might be the limit with a few living longer.
Changlings: now we come to the FUN!!!!! the drones mature fast, in about 2-3 years they would be like an adult pony. but after that it depends on Which Queen they are linked too. some queens are like Crystalis, want them mindless and obeying, that of course, means they WONT get out of the way of danger unless told to do so. the drones from queens that wants them intelligent, would of course live longer. so the dumb drones maybe 20 years 30 tops, the intelligent ones 50-75.
the Queens would of course live far longer. Ive always thought of a Hive as a huge Brain. with the drones being the cells and the Queen the controlling intelligence. but the type of drones they have would effect their lifespan too. a queen with dumb drones would have to spend more time managing them, hence he life would be shorter (and more than likely cause the drones wont know to FIGHT if the hive gets invaded without being told) so a queen like that maybe 300-400 years. a queen with intelligent drones would probably live to at least double that (600-750ish) because she would be using less of her life micro managing.
Griffons: now we come to the hard one. very little has been revealed for the griffons in the series. but if we assume the same points I made of Pegasi apply then they would normally live (without fighting) to roughly 100.
hope this helps.
*WolfGrin*
4506448
Very good and about what I would suggest. I only disagree about the griffon one. Considering they're based on, more usually, eagles and lions, they should have longer lifespans compared to pegasus, but smaller than unicorns and earth ponies, of course considering natural death. I would put griffins between 175~225 years long.
Other species that entered the canon came also to my view. For example Zebras. From what is shown in the show, Zecora is wise and, although she doesn't use actual magic like unicorns, she IS able to teach them to develo their potential, giving her something like a shaman aura or something. Since zebras depends on herbs for their potions, they would have to grow it and infuse magic on them, giving them a lifespan akin to earth ponies in my sense, with the same variation of unicorns exposed by Hewolf. Minotaurs (although didn't appear in the canon but I would love to see them) I guess would have a lifespan akin to griffins, around 200 years or so.
Also I would add one thing to the changelings, that I will call the Ambient Positive Emotion Coefficient (APEC). Yes, positive emotions are what keep changelings alive, but I'm diving more into the canon than the series on this one. The APEC is not referent to the emotional energy they consume, but to the positive emotions that radiates from ponies around them and is not consumed! So far, we only know the exact location of the Green Hive, which is under a pony city. My guess is that their locations takes in consideration the APEC: the higher the coefficient, the bigger the hive, based on the Green Hive Princess' words: the interaction between ponies and changelings allow the green hive to be the biggest hive in Equestria. How the APEC affects the lifespan then? Simple put, it would 'clear the air', making it more healthy for the changelings to 'breath', akin to the relation between polution to humans in our world.
As an example, let's take the Blue Hive, which is implied to be quite far from any pony city, considering the time before the invasion of Canterlot; the Red Hive, with it's unknown location but I belive that it's not too far from Canterlot due to events in "Conversations in a Canterlot Cafe", and the Green Hive. Chrysalis was desperate for a perfect princess, but they all came as mutants. Dianthia seems to not suffer with it, although we only know about one Green Hive Princess. But the Red Hive implies in MANY princesses that are Carpacia's generals, and somehow I doubt they are mutants as Gossamer is. If the APEC can affect these aspects while at birth, I do believe they can affect the lifespans, so Crhysalis desperation for a child must have been because her lifespan was coming to an end, while the other queens didn't have such worries either by the birth of a princess or their own lifespan.
With that said, though, the APEC would have a apex point, at which the ambient positive emotions would favor their growth and lifespan the most. Standing at either side of that apex point, say as building a hive too far from any pony civilization or too close to the Crystal City (the only known fountain of immensurably positive energy), would diminish the coefficient and, by consequence, the healthy growth and the lifespan of changelings, with effects easier to be noticed on the drones than the queens.
Ok so I am for be living that granny smith is at least two centuries old.
So rainbow dash could be forty-one based off the number of candles on her birthday cake, and still be pretty young.
Though another observation is that much older mare at the apple reunion that granny was poking fun at was still elderly in filly granny smiths flashback. So how much older is she and still alive. In fact a couple of apples are older than granny. Like that aunt who was keeping their family records in pinkie apple pie.
Which begs the question. If ponies (at least earth ponies) can live possibly 400 + years, how is nightmare moon being vanquished 1000 years ago a long lost ancient surprise. That would be like something happening in the 19th century for us.
In this whole discussion, there's one thing we still don't know.
How many hours makes up an Equus year?
For all we know, Granny Smith could be, 200, 300 Equus years old, but that might amount to 80 - 100 of years as we know them.
4507048
As for the whole Nightmare Moon, from event, to forgotten, to fairytale, even if we assume that the average (uninterrupted) pony lifespan, is about 200, which sounds decent compared to what little info we've been provided, then 1000 -> 5x lifespans, roughly fifteen generations of ponies. (You try and chase your family fifteen generations back, we'd be somewhere in the 17th century.)
4507119 considering everything happening in the first three seasons were all within a single year I'm more inclined to think equestrian years are longer not shorter.
A pony lifespan is exactly 1,000 years, and this is why ponies never count any higher than 1,000, and everything seems to happen exactly “a thousand years ago”. Like the rabbits in Watership Down, “a thousand” is a metaphorical number, so when a pony says that something happened a thousand years ago, it could mean exactly a thousand years ago, which is unlikely, four thousand seven hundred and three years ago, or in the case of Nightmare Moon, something like thirteen billion years ago. Foals would use the expression to mean any event before his or her own lifetime but adult ponies would use the expression to mean anything that happened before their parent’s lifetime, because the expression really means “No pony who was there is still alive to tell you what really happened at that time”. It’s not that ponies don’t care about history, but most ponies live in the moment and this expression helps them to remember not to be burdened by events they were not there to experience.
4507048
Maybe for them time is actually alot longer then what we interpret. Maybe one Earth year for us would be 10 years for *insert name of their planet here*. Maybe, in their world, Granny Smith could be 400 yrs old?