bookplayer's 50 questions · 4:57pm Apr 11th, 2014
Alright, I'm game:
The Princesses:
1. How old are Celestia and Luna? Over 1,500 years old (Discord ruled for a thousand years, but they could have been born during his reign), but less than 3,000.
2. How old is Cadance? 23-26 years old, about 5 years older than Twilight.
3. Were Celestia and Luna always alicorns, or did they ascend? Ascended. Celly was a unicorn, Luna was a pegasus.
4. Are Cadance and Twilight immortal? Not yet.
5. Have there been other alicorns in the past? Yes.
6. How much authority do Celestia and Luna have in Equestria? Celestia is the Pharaoh, the god-empress, who rules with the divine right of her own will: her authority is absolute.
She just delegates all the things so her average day consists of no actual governing. A parliament handles most stuff. (Kind of like how England works today.)
Luna does her dreamwalking thing with very little oversight, but has minimal political authority.
7. Does Shining Armor rule The Crystal Empire along side of Cadance? Not really, though he is the head of their military, as well as being a very important advisor.
8. Other than Twilight, Luna, and Cadance, what relationships have been important to Celestia in her lifetime (students, close friends, lovers, family)? Her Prime minister, her secretary, she may also be friends with other prominent mages.
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)? There would still be differences, but those would probably be more acruately described as city-based: Pegasi in Cloudsdale would be more stereotypically pegasus-y, whereas pegasi who grew up in Canterlot would generally conform more to Canterlot culture. Ponyville, being uncommonly diverse, has a distincive inclusive culture of it's own.
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? Not really; you can't farm on clouds. Pegasi might prefer different seasonings, though.
11. Can all unicorns learn all spells, given the time and effort spent practicing them, or is magical talent usually limited in some way? Generally yes, but not totally. Similar to how a human can learn to play any sport, but that does not mean anyone at all can become a world-champion just by working harder. Hypothetically, Rarity could learn how to do anything Twi can do, but whether Rarity can develop the magical strength to do all that is another issue.
12. Earth pony magic: Does it exist? What is it? There's some sort of attunement to the "ground" and plant life. But it's not absolute: a unicorn can do geomancy too.
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? Pony families have names: Pinkie is a member of the Pie family. But family names are not really considered part of a pony's personal name. i.e. Big macintosh is a member of the Apple family, but his name is not Big Macintosh Apple, it's just Big Macintosh.
Family naming traditions/patterns are much more common among ponies than they are among humans.
14. How much formal schooling is an average, middle class pony expected to complete? I have a fairly extensive headcanon on this: pre-school is rarely formal, usually completed in the home by one's parents or a tutor/nanny, but co-op style pre-schools might exist (i.e, Button's mom might run one). Primary schooling is universal, and fairly similar for all ponies. (History, Math, Science, Literacy) Secondary schooling is usually vocational. Earth ponies typically either go to a school that teaches a skillset related to their special talent (i.e. farming school, mining school, cooking school) or they become apprentices. Both paths are fairly common. (Even apprentices occationally take classes on the side) Pegasi go to similar schools and they also go to flight camp regardless of cutie mark, though depending on talent/discipline, they may go to a lot more than one camp. Unicorns pretty much always go to a secondary school of some kind to learn to control their magic, but apprenticships are not unheardof. Post-secondary education is rare.
15. What’s the average lifespan for a pony? At what age is a pony expected to be independent of their parents? I just assume they age in human years, though I admit they could age at any crazy rate they want. (It's possible they age at 1/3 the rate of humans, which would make Celestia's extreme lifespan less crazy, without having any other noticeable effect). Young ponies may move away from their parents early if they become apprentices or go to faraway boarding schools, but they generally don't live entirely on their own until 18ish.
16. Are there roughly an equal number of male and female ponies? Yes, though there is mandatory conscription for males, who might do military stuff or just large infrastructure projects.
17. How informed are most ponies about things that happen in other parts of Equestria? What about other parts of the world? Given the lack of electronic communication, news from faraway places is generally old and difficult to get one's hooves on; most ponies don't bother with much beyond local news. Twilght and Rarity, however, like to keep up with certain things.
The Main Characters:
18. How old are the Mane Six? Spike? The CMC? Main Six: 17-19 in season one, about three years older now. The CMC were 7 or 8 in the first season. Spike is about the CMC's age, but he's very smart compared to a pony of that age.
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 would have gone to a school that teaches wildlife management, which would ave been on the ground. If she wasn't the only pony at the school, she was one of a few. Fluttershy wrote Rainbow Dash letters every week or so. Dash wrote back a couple time a year, or less.
20. Rarity and Applejack both seem to have grown up in Ponyville. What were their interactions like before the show? Most likely: few to none. They don't appear to have been classmates, and would have gone to different schools (if AJ didn't just apprentice on the farm). Rarity's high school might have been in another town, ecause fashion design is not something every, or even most, schools bother teaching. Manehatten?
21. What do Twilight and Spike consider their relationship to be? Twilight sees Spike as an assistant/butler. Spike sees Twilight as an older sister.
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? She's an apprentice. They've developed strong eyerolling muscles.
23. Who among the Mane Six had the best parents growing up? The worst parents? If any of them had bad parents, it's Pinkie, but that's just because of the apparent difference in personalities; they love each other even if living together is a bad idea. Twilight's parent's might have been distant if doting. Rarity's dad had played a lot of dress-up for a football coach.
24. Why didn’t the CMC hang out more/know each other before Call of the Cutie? I have no idea.
25. Is Scootaloo an orphan? Will she ever be able to fly? She's not an orphan, but her parents are very busy ponies and/or her dad if away somewhere. (Army? Prison?) She'll be able to fly eventually, it's just that her pegasus magic is taking a little longer to kick in.
26. Will Apple Bloom’s cutie mark involve an apple in some way, even if it’s unrelated to farming or baking? Most likely yes, and it might even be an apple flower, which is a rather pretty flower on it's own.
27. How is Sweetie Belle’s relationship with their parents different than Rarity’s was? She's the baby.
Side and Background Characters:
28. Is Mr. Cake the father of the Cake twins or not? Only Mrs. Cake knows for sure.
29. Are Big Mac and Cheerilee an item, romantically? Yes.
30. How did Prince Blueblood get his title? Equestrian titles got condensed: there used to be many different titles for all sorts of different levels of nobility, but over time intermarriage meant nobles had several titles though they'd only mention the highest, until eventually 'prince/ss' became the only title anyone really used. Basically, prince/ss just means you're a noble of some kind. This trend happened at the same time as the importance of the title declined: being a prince/ss doesn't mean much beyond the right to use the prefix. (Though most ponies with title are also wealthy)
31. Is Silver Spoon equally as bad as Diamond Tiara? Not really, I feel like she goes along as a way to not be a target.
32. Is Zecora’s magic common among zebras? No. While most Zebra villages have a wise woman, few zebras who aren't wise women know anything about potions.
33. Why does Daring Do publish her stories as fiction? She wants to brag while maintaining her cover.
34. Do you have a strong headcanon for any non-speaking or one line background ponies that you want to share? Roseluck is a member of the Apple family.
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?) There is differentiation, but not along consistent lines. Each species' legal status is set by parliament independently (though there are patterns and principles, each of those has exceptions.) The status a species gets has a lot to do with how much political clout they can manage to obtain. Cows are citizens, Diamond Dogs are residents but not citizens, Chimeras have no official status.
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? Most nations are dominated by a particular species (Ponies are considered one species) but every nation has minority populations.
37. Are minotaurs related to cows at all? Yes, but not much more than elephants are.
38. Do all zebras rhyme? Yes and no. The Zebra language conjugates in a way that makes rhyming more or less the rule, so non-rhyming sentences would sound 'weird' to native speakers. But most zebras who learn other languages would get over that eventually.
39. Do zebra cutie marks work the same way as pony cutie marks? Yes, though they are not colorful.
40. Do any species have types of magic, other than ponies and zebras? Yes, though spellcasting might not occur among all species, innate magic is pretty much universal.
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? Equestria only recently gained political control of the lands traditionally inhabited by buffalo, so there hasn't been adaptation yet.
Headcanon and You:
42. Do you consider official sources other than the show (comics, card game text, movies, novels, etc.) to be canon? Generally yes, though I'm way behind on the comics,
43. Do you have one headcanon that you always use, or do you switch depending on projects? Usually switch, though I have certain interpretations of the characters that I really dislike seeing defied.
44. Can you easily accept the headcanons of different writers? Do you prefer when stories match your headcanon? I usually go along with what the writer is telling me, as long as it makes internal sense.
45. Is there a part of your headcanon that you wish was more popular among writers? Celestia and Luna aren't deities, they're very powerful wizards.
46. Is there a popular piece of headcanon that other writers use that you dislike? Buck as a curse word, and plot as a euphemism.
47. Have you ever written a story or blogpost just to explain some part of your headcanon (other than this one)? I wrote a blog post and half a story on marriage ceremonies. If I could write pony ethnographies as stories, I would.
48. Does your headcanon influence things like your favorite pony, ship, or episode? Probably?
49. Would it bother you if the show proved part of your headcanon wrong? Any specific piece that would really bother you to lose? Probably not, unless what they replaced it with didn't make sense.
50. Is there something that wasn't asked about here, but you feel like you need to explain to everyone? Celestia is not actually a goddess, they just treat her like one. She's actually a very powerful archmagus who happens to know the spells necessary to prevent aging.
One: God damn this is hard to read.
Two: We disagree almost entirely about the Princesses which is interesting. Particularly, are you saying that there were "lesser alicorns" in the past who have since died of natural causes?
Three: Conscription for males seems like a stretch. Maybe Ponyville is a bit backwards and has a lot of demure stallions who "know their place."
>Rhyming is a convention of zebra language, so non-rhyming sentences in foreign tongues sound odd to the zebra ear
That's fucking brilliant.
>Celestia just happens to know anti-aging spells.
Okay, this one I don't really like.
Dang man. That's detailed.
2000770 Thanks!
2000757 A thing that may be a factor here: I came into the fandom between season 2 and season 3, and one of the first rumors I heard was "Twilight's going to become an alicorn," so I never got attached to the idea that alicorns are immortal or divine. My headcanon basically flows from this (and MMC). I see Celestia as a Buddha and archmage, but not a goddess. Just my default way of viewing things.
Could immortality be a natural trait of alicorns? Sure. But I think it's just as likely that Celestia either made a philosopher's stone of has a tree that grows the Peaches of Immortality. In fact, if alicorns are ascended mortals, it makes more sense if immortality is not an innate trait of alicorns.
They could be reborn, (my person favorite take on Cadance) they could learn to become immortal (as the Eight Immortals did), they could live longer just because, but ascention always equaling immortality bugs me in a low-grade sort of way.
As for conscription: if we're not just ignoring the dramatic change in mare-to-stallion ratios in Ponyville over the course of the show, conscription is the best answer. Ignoring the ratios is still a reasonable option, and what I normally do anyways.