So, one of the official My Little Pony books that came out is My Little Pony: Ponyville Mysteries: Riddle of the Rusty Horseshoe.

According to this book, Scootaloo's parents are usually away, and her Aunt Lofty and Aunt Holiday stay with her.

It's not shown on the show canon, but it is Hasbro. Think this counts at least as semi-canon?

--Sweetie Belle

6152949
If we're lucky maybe the show will show us her parents/aunt's it would be nice but I can only hope this happens in the show, all we can do is wait. But I accept this as a semi-canon.

6152952
It's hard to tell from that, and I don't actually have the book, though I'm kinda tempted. There's a kindle version...

It mentions Aunt Holiday's relation and not Aunt Lofty's, though, so I'm kinda thinking Lofty might not be an actual relative, but living with Holiday or something. OTOH, it says her dad's older sister. Maybe Lofty is her dad's younger sister?

6152953
I do hope for something in the show, but this is the most we've got so far.

--Sweetie Belle

Tis just a mistranslation.

6152949
Okay, now I'm just wondering if Scootaloo's dad is an Earth pony like Aunt Holiday, or if those two are kinda similar to the Cake Twins...

Either way, it adds at least a small amount of credence to the theory that Scootaloo's limited flight capability is due to having some Earth pony genes.

6152964
It is interesting that the one we know is related to Scootaloo is an earth pony. Wonder if her father is an earth pony?

--Sweetie Belle

6152964
6152967
Pound Cake's flight capability certainly isn't limited by having two earth pony parents. Flurry Heart's isn't limited by having a unicorn father and grandparents.

Just to add, the pen name on this book is actually Mike Vogel writing with Nicole Dubuc.

Mike Vogel's written on the show before, and Nicole is the new executive producer for the show, so stuff from there seems like it has a pretty good chance of being becoming canon...

--Sweetie Belle

6152984
...but you know that isn't how canon works.

You have an anthology in which the stories contained within are not necessarily canon to each other, despite having written them and their even being about the same character.

Something is canon (to something else) only if it is explicitly stated to be. If the powers that be declare the book is canon, it is canon. They have not, so it is not. If an episode pops up and Scootaloo's parents differ from the book, are only children both, or any other such thing, there is no contradiction. If instead they decide to pop the characters from that book into an episode, cool. Doesn't make other books canon by precedent or anything like that.

To further add to that, being canon or not is pretty unimportant. There is nothing stopping you or anyone else reading this thread from deciding they like the contents of the book and possibly using it in their own fanfic or something. But you would clearly still need to explain a lot more in this hypothetical fanfic about the material you're adding, and could not enjoy the same kind of "part of the work is done for you" that the show gives.

6152980
...D'oh!

Point taken.

6152995
I said being when I meant to say becoming. It just seems reasonable that if one of the two writers who wrote this book (and series, I believe) is now producing the show as of next season, that things they wrote may become canon, or, rather, if the subject comes up on the show, it is more likely to match what they've previously worked on.

It has more weight then if it was someone entirely not connected with the show, (the comic writers, for example), anyways. If you wanted to use this in a fanfic, I'd say to make sure you don't have to have read the book to understand everything. For that matter, even if something is in the show, if it's a minor part of one episode, it's a good idea to treat it as if others won't have seen it. That's not so much about being canon as how well known it is.

And yeah, the earth pony ancestry doesn't necessarily mean anything, It could be a matter of what was inherited from the pegasus side, too, though. I also suspect that Pound Cake and Flurry Heart are able to fly that well right now because they are still pretty small. I tend to think pegasuses grow out of flying once their bodies start outgrowing their wings, then grow back into it later.

--Sweetie Belle

6152949
Correct me if I am wrong but didn't also books first introduce Pinkie's family before they finally had an episode? Back when people thought that Pinkie's sisters were called Inky and Blinky. So this could be a build up for a season 8 episode.

If it is true or has the slightest chance at becoming the truth, then say goodbye to some of the Scootaloo's orphan stories.

Also say hello to new stories asking the question of whether or not the parents/guardians actually care for Scootaloo and her life ?

6152949
I reject it as canon until we see it in the show.
As far as I'm concerned, every piece not shown in the show is just fanfiction from Hasbro.

Which is still cool, but I think that seeing is believing.

6152949 Sounds interesting, it could be one reason why Scootaloo doesn't talk about her family and why we haven't seen them.

well the writer of the book has now been brought on as executive producer on the show
so this could be canon (here's hoping it is)

6153086
There'll still be orphan stories don't worry, you could always have her parents put her in an orphanage for whatever reason, besides it's all just a story.

Does the book go into a bit more detail in regards to Scootaloo's family after this section? If so, I may end up looking more into this book series.

6153039
Being speculation on future canon-status was something indeed missing from your other post. That does change things. On that more clear idea, I agree. There are many scenarios we could imagine in which it still doesn't make it into the series: they pitch their idea in a brainstorming meeting, and no one else likes the idea, so they don't. Someone else pitches an idea that establishes Scootaloo's family in another way and that one is accepted and turned into an episode. But there are many scenarios in which the very thing you mentioned could result in the ideas in the book making it into an episode.

We're in agreement on the topic of "how well known" a thing is. The issue with most discussions on "questionable canon" is this idea that being canon lets you do certain things in a fanfic-writing context that firmly non-canon things don't let you do. It generally boils down to "You don't have to explain that Twilight Sparkle is purple and lives in Ponyville because anyone reading your fanfic already knows that, and in fact it would be a bad idea to do so." In contrast, you do need to explain that Daring Do was born in Manehattan, as the series has never said where she's from and if your story is reliant on the reader knowing that bit of information to understand her feelings about a trip to Manehattan, you need to explain it to them.

I often fear that if someone says, "this book/comic is canon/semi-canon/psuedo-canon" that they misunderstand what canon means, and will fall to making those kinds of mistakes. It is such a rampant misunderstanding that I feel we ought to be vigilant against it, and help reinforce the proper thinking that will benefit everyone with better stories.

6153086
All stories that currently exist on that topic won't suddenly disappear. If people are still writing them, I question why.

Also, if you really want to write about an orphan filly, why not write about Apple Bloom?

6153221
Since posting, I actually read the book, and unfortunately, the pages there were really the most detail we get. It was a fun story, and I'm curious about the references to Twist having turned into a werepony for a while, though.

6153085
I don't really remember, but that would be interesting.

6153086
Well, any ones with Scootaloo being homeless are already non-canon (Flight to the Finish), and being orphaned can happen at any time. Scootaloo could become an orphan two paragraphs into the story.It could even be that her parents died since the last time she saw them, and her aunts haven't told her yet.

And you can write stories that ignore minor bits of canon, but you should saw you are doing so and what you are ignoring, and if you are ignoring enough canon, you should mark it as AU.

6153373
Yeah, and there are times you should explain something despite it being in the show. People aren't likely to remember the Rainbow Falls Trader Exchange, for example, despite it being canon. and if you write about Lily Longsocks, her name is fancon, and you should really describe her, since all her appearances are very background, and you aren't necessarily going to remember her from Crusaders of the Lost Mark.

Oh, and usually when people want to write about orphaned Scootaloo, they specifically want to write the whole "not having a family" bits and then the bits with being adopted, and Apple Bloom already has a family and seems perfectly happy there, even if she doesn't have parents. With not being able to fly and her attitude, Scootaloo also has the whole "overcoming adversity" thing going, so it's understandable that people want to write about her specifically being an orphan.

--Sweetie Belle

6153550

... people want to write about her specifically being an orphan.

And they want it to be canon so they don't have to do the work of explaining the details of how and why. It is a tired trope, and I look forward to the day when someone does something legitimately interesting with it, instead of lazy "the feels tho" writing.

I argue that most people picking Scootaloo don't do so because they want a specifically interesting character who happens to be an orphan, nor are they trying to really explore what that means to a character. They could do those same things with Apple Bloom. They pick Scootaloo because someone else did it, and they want to copy what they did, and so on. They think if they put the right clothes on the story, they get to be that story.

Apple Bloom is reasonably well off, but she has the same hardships Scootaloo would have for not having parents. Scootaloo is also "well off." We've already established she has a place to live and by extension caretakers. She owns a scooter, so she's not some homeless street waif like people used to write about her.

6152949
Too late for my stories, but it's head cannon for me now!