Eh, why not? 50 Headcanon Questions

Bookplayer's original post

Some of these have two answers. The ones in italics apply to certain fanfics I might never publish/finish at the rate I'm going.

The Princesses:

1. How old are Celestia and Luna?

Thousands of years, with Luna still being the equivalent of a teenager.

Celestia was created by the merging of the power of The [Glyph variously translated as The One, The First, or The Origin] and an ordinary mare's egg some 4,000 years ago. With her birth daylight came to what was once a world of gray dimness. About 500 years after that, The One did so once more, bringing Luna and night into the world.

Celestia's aging slowed until it halted at about 3,000 years (about thirty), and presumably, Luna's will do the same.

Luna was placed into the moon at roughly 1500 years of age, and while there her aging was suspended entirely.

2. How old is Cadance?

Twenty-seven.

She ascended at twenty.

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

Always alicorns.

4. Are Cadance and Twilight immortal?

Yup.

5. Have there been other alicorns in the past?

It's possible.

Certain rare descendants of Celestia and Luna's mortal mothers are born as winged unicorns, but no one thought they could ascend until Cadence somehow pulled it off.

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

They have various advisors and councils and lesser officials and such to handle things they don't have time for, but ultimately their word is law.

Luna is still recovering from her time as Nightmare Moon, and has yet to make more than a few short appearances in public or to resume most of her duties.

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

He is accorded the respect due a ruler's chosen consort (particularly in an empire that runs on love), and remains Captain of the Royal Guard and recently of the Imperial Guard as well—which is frankly all the power he wants, thank you very much.

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

All of 'em.

The sisters were raised by six advisors whose bonds to the Elements made them immortal, all of whom disappear from the records after Luna's banishment.

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)?

Yes.

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?

Many cloud cities have twin cities on the ground, from whom they receive supplies they can't obtain in the clouds. Others rely heavily on traders and merchants.

Cloud-based confections, artwork and furniture are quite popular, although the latter require either particularly skilled cloud-crafters (note that RD made a solid cloud in "Wonderbolts Academy") or the aid of unicorns.

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

Unicorns are best at spells which relate to their special talents, but this can be open to broad interpretation, depending on the unicorn (a talent for design lending itself to illusions or making minor alterations to fabric, hair, the color on the walls etc).

For other spells, it depends on the unicorn in question. Like any skill, some unicorns have a natural knack for certain spells or none whatsoever for others.

There are certain utility spells most unicorns can pick up and use fairly handily, but your window-cleaning spell will never be as good as that of a unicorn with a window cleaning Cutie Mark—nor even the hard work of an earth pony with one.

In short, learning magic outside your special talent is generally a long, hard, slog with negligible to so-so results (although practice can help).

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

The very presence of an earth pony greatly improves the rate of growth and health of plant and animal life around them, and permanently improves the quality of the soil upon which they reside. Some have even been powerful enough to have plants grow in their hoofsteps when they walk.

In their presence, normally non-sapient creatures seem to get a boost to their intellect, at least enough to follow orders.

They have a good sense for (non-pegasus) weather, and for nature in general. An earth pony could look at a tree from a distance and get a general feel for its health, age and so forth, with closer investigation revealing more information.

And, of course, they're more physically capable, as a rule than the other races (though exceptions exist). Stereotypes about their capability in bed are generally not fit for public conversation.

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?

If a pony does something extremely notable or prideworthy, their descendants may take on their name as a badge of honor.

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

Elementary, middle, and high school. Homeschooling is perfectly acceptable and common in farming communities.

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

Ponies mature rapidly for the first months of their lives, eventually leveling off until they reach two years of age, when they're about the same as a human child.

The line's a bit fuzzy about leaving home. Some stay with their families their whole lives or until they get married (or just move their new spouse in), others leave as soon as they can.

Particularly strong earth ponies can keep on trucking well into their hundreds, and age extremely gracefully due to their physical robustness.

Powerful unicorns can be sustained by the magic in their bodies for, well, the upper limits are unknown, but not much more than a couple of centuries—in fact towards the end of their lives some unicorns are more magic than meat. Unicorns who live that long tend to go a bit funny in the head, and sometimes disappear entirely rather than die as others do. (And some become liches, but that's not generally considered a good life choice).

Pegasi generally live for about 85-90 years, and tend to be hit badly by arthritis of the wings. They tend to be the most ambitious and active of the three races, packing as much activity as they can into their relatively short lifespans.

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

Some areas have more than others but overall, yes.

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

About as much as the average [resident of country]. Some read newspapers, some don't.

The Main Characters:

18. How old are the Mane Six? Spike? The CMC?

Early to mid twenties (Rarity's the oldest).

At the start of the series, Spike was eight, the CMC seven. They've aged a few years.

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?

Per her wishes, her parents arranged for her to live with some ground-bound relatives while she completed elementary, middle, and high school. She was usually the only pegasus in her class, and felt isolated and miserable until she graduated. Occasional visits to and from home did help, however, and she maintained a letters-and-visits friendship with Rainbow Dash.

20. Rarity and Applejack both seem to have grown up in Ponyville. What were their interactions like before the show?

Distant. AJ was homeschooled, and Rarity went to finishing school in Manehatten after elementary school, so they didn't interact as children. Since the Apple family supplies food for Ponyville celebrations and Rarity often volunteers her time to design for events they struck up a nodding acquaintance as adults.

During the planning stages of the Summer Sun Celebration, there was a fight over table placement that almost got physical and ended with them being very civil in their interactions with each other. Very, very civil. Bared, grinding teeth were involved.

21. What do Twilight and Spike consider their relationship to be?

Brother and sister, and mentor.

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?

Pinkie left home very early (at about thirteen), and the childless Cakes hired her, partially paying in room and board. They never expected to have kids (after over a decade of trying), and Pinkie helped fill the void.

23. Who among the Mane Six had the best parents growing up? The worst parents?

Best: Twilight and AJ.
Worst: RD (Distant workaholic father, dead mother) and Pinkie (Meant well, couldn't relate)

24. Why didn’t the CMC hang out more/know each other before Call of the Cutie?

Different classes in school.

25. Is Scootaloo an orphan? Will she ever be able to fly?

Scootaloo was recently taken in a very nice pair of foster parents (Butter and Vanilla Bean). The three of them are still feeling each other out a bit, but so far there haven't been any big problems.

Not very well, but she will hover and make assisted jumps.

26. Will Apple Bloom’s cutie mark involve an apple in some way, even if it’s unrelated to farming or baking?

Sure.

27. How is Sweetie Belle’s relationship with their parents different than Rarity’s was?

Sweetie Belle was very unexpected, and premature to boot, so they tend to dote on her. Rarity found them smothering back in the day, though, so probably not all that much different, after all.

Side and Background Characters:

28. Is Mr. Cake the father of the Cake twins or not?

Yes. Even "pure" bloodlines have occasional flukes (where do you think unicorns and pegasi came from?), and neither one has a pure bloodline.

29. Are Big Mac and Cheerilee an item, romantically?

They had a go at it, but it didn't work out.

30. How did Prince Blueblood get his title?

He's a direct descendant of Princess Platinum.

...who herself was a descendant of Celestia's mortal mother.

31. Is Silver Spoon equally as bad as Diamond Tiara?

Nah.

32. Is Zecora’s magic common among zebras?

It's a learned skill, which anyone can pick up if they devote the time.

33. Why does Daring Do publish her stories as fiction?

A pony's gotta eat.

34. Do you have a strong headcanon for any non-speaking or one line background ponies that you want to share?

Noteworthy is an unusually calm, relaxed guy with terrible luck in love. (Was my headcanon back in 2011 when I started writing stories about him. Then it got blown out of the water. Oh, well.)

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?)

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?

(Two at once.)

If it can ask to be respected on its own initiative and if it can behave, then it should be treated with respect.

Domesticated species of animals suddenly appeared in Equestria thousands of years ago and appear to have gravitated to the residents, who seem to behave similarly to the denizens of whichever strange dimension they came from.

Relatively recently, they became sapient, and can if they wish take Equestrian citizenship and get normal jobs, etc. Most have elected not to.

37. Are minotaurs related to cows at all?

Well, there's an eight foot-tall minotaur over there. Ask him if his momma was a cow.

38. Do all zebras rhyme?

It's an unconscious side effect of all the spells Zecora chants.

39. Do zebra cutie marks work the same way as pony cutie marks?

Yes, but they tend to be more abstract in meaning.

40. Do any species have types of magic, other than ponies and zebras?

Yes.

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?

Buffalo mostly keep to themselves, though that may be changing.

Headcanon and You:

42. Do you consider official sources other than the show (comics, card game text, movies, novels, etc.) to be canon?

If I like them.

43. Do you have one headcanon that you always use, or do you switch depending on projects?

I switch.

44. Can you easily accept the headcanons of different writers? Do you prefer when stories match your headcanon?

I kind of have to accept them if I want to enjoy reading anything.

45. Is there a part of your headcanon that you wish was more popular among writers?

Nah.

46. Is there a popular piece of headcanon that other writers use that you dislike?

Not too crazy about the whole polygamy thing.

47. Have you ever written a story or blogpost just to explain some part of your headcanon (other than this one)?

Sort of.

48. Does your headcanon influence things like your favorite pony, ship, or episode?

Yeah.

49. Would it bother you if the show proved part of your headcanon wrong? Any specific piece that would really bother you to lose?

It has. Who said I lost it?

50. Is there something that wasn't asked about here, but you feel like you need to explain to everyone?

I started on my stories back in 2011, and now I have to make at least some of them AU. Sigh.