YAHES: Equestrian History · 2:31am Jun 4th, 2014
Had an idea while I was getting back to writing the next chapter (I had hit a moment of "how do I resolve this," then kept putting it off after figuring it out; sorry) to write up a history for my story. There's nothing spoilery here, and I tried to make it as compliant with currently known canon as possible. Still working out some bugs with Sunset's place in the timeline.
The Mane Six's birthdates are based off this, which I found on TV Tropes:
* The Age of the Main cast is actually calculable.
** All the mane six got their cutie marks on the same day, which Applejack and Fluttershy being the last in their class, Rainbow Dash being the first in her class, and the others undetermined (presumably middle of the pack).
** The Apple Family reunion is held every 100 moons (episode: Apple Family Reunion). Presuming a 12 month year, this means it's held every 8.3 years
** Applejack was a baby (<1) at one reunion
** Therefore, Applejack is 8, 17, 25, or 30 as of season 3 (and as indicated in Princess Twilight Sparkle) all 3 of the first seasons occurred in 1 year.
** The fillies are ~12-16, given that they have a full school newspaper.
** In Sweetie Belle's Nightmare it's shown that Rarity was already an adult at Sweetie's 5th Birthday. Therefore, they cannot be 8 or 17 (as 7 years previous would make her younger than Sweetie is currently)
** It's pretty obvious that they are not 30 due to relative immaturity and being apparently quite early in their careers.
** Therefore, Applejack is 25 in the first three seasons. This would make Fluttershy 25, the rest of the cast 23-24, and Rainbow 22-23
Obviously, I'm stretching the timeline a bit to two-and-a-half years rather than just one, but I'm going to keep the ages. As Trixie seems to be of similar age as Twilight, I'm going to make her 23.
Discordian Era: Any records from before then are lost; Length of Discordian Era unmeasured due to chaotic flow of time
0 AD (After Discord): Discord is defeated by Celestia and Luna through use of the Elements of Harmony, gained from the Tree of Harmony, which they found after wandering Chaos. The origins of the Tree and the Elements are still unknown. After petrifying Discord, Celestia and Luna begin to wander, searching for others.
1 AD: Various unicorns taught by Celestia learn to focus their magic to move the sun. Pegasi taught by Luna have learned to manipulate the weather. Earth ponies have discovered their magic on their own. The sisters continue looking for others like themselves.
400 AD: Starswirl is born. Celestia, while passing by, notes his incredible power and resolves to teach him all she can while still searching.
490 AD: The Windigoes force the unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies out of their homes due to a seemingly never-ending winter.
509 AD: The first Hearth's Warming Eve is celebrated after the defeat of the Windigoes.
512 AD: Equestria is founded by Smart Cookie, Pansy, and Clover the Clever.
516 AD: A faction of earth ponies experimenting with their magic forge the Crystal Heart and move northward, becoming crystal ponies.
520 AD: Celestia and Luna discover Equestria, who see them as the perfect embodiments of Equestria's unification. The flag of Equestria is modified as the sisters are crowned reigning princesses.
523 AD: Some unicorns, annoyed by the new rule of Princesses Celestia and Luna, refuse to move the sun This forces Celestia to reveal that she can do so on her own. These unicorns flee Equestria, following the hoofsteps of the crystal ponies. Some pegasi follow after.
586 AD: Cadance is born to non-crystal pegasi from the Crystal Empire.
607 AD: Cadance ascends to alicorn with the help of a fragment of cosmic spectrum stone. She moves to Equestria to learn how to control her new power under Celestia and Luna.
613 AD: Tirek and Scorpan attempt to invade Equestria. Scorpan leaves after learning friendship from Starswirl* and warning the reigning princesses that his brother seeks to consume all the magic in Equestria. Tirek is imprisoned in Tartarus for his attempts at destroying Equestria.
640 AD: Starswirl dies of old age.
674 AD: Cadance returns to the Crystal Empire, where most of the Crystal Senate elect her to rule them. She chooses to change her new title from Crystal Empress to Crystal Princess. The Senate refuses to rename the Empire.
900 AD: Sombra experiments with dark magic in combination with the magically reactive crystals of the Crystal Empire and creates the Alicorn Amulet. He uses it to overthrow Cadance and enslave the crystal ponies.
902 AD: Celestia and Luna attack Sombra while Cadance tries to free the crystal ponies. Sombra uses the last of his power to seal away the Crystal Empire, catching Cadance in the process. The Alicorn Amulet is lost.
1010 AD: Luna's jealousy overtakes her, turning her into Nightmare Moon. She is then banished for 1000 years by Celestia improperly wielding the Elements of Harmony. The Protective Pony Platoons (also called the E.U.P. Guard) are formed.
1011 AD: The Wonderbolts are founded by General Firefly.
1501 AD: Cadance emerges from the frozen north and is taken to Princess Celestia in Canterlot. As she was more powerful than the crystal ponies, the sealing spell could not hold her. She reports having seen the passage of time, but unable to do more than watch as the world changed around the lost empire. She asks Celestia to make her sleep until the empire is recovered, but Celestia refuses. Cadance distances herself from Equestria and the frozen north by moving south of Equestria, where she is joined by several ponies.
1687 AD: Princess Cadance's principality is thrown into disarray when she and an Equestrian prince are dosed with a love poison. Cadance's subjects are mutated by the backlash, turning into creatures that feast on love, having since become known as changelings. Princess Celestia is forced to intervene, but the land has become almost irreparably damaged. The principality becomes known as The Badlands.
1688 AD: Celestia finally grants Cadance's request for hibernation, but plans for her to sleep only three hundred years.
1700 AD: Ponyville is founded.
1980 AD: Shining Armor is born.
1985 AD: Fluttershy and Applejack are born.
1986 AD: Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity are born.
1987 AD: Rainbow Dash is born. (Trixie is also born.)
1988 AD: Cadance wakes up from her magical hibernation and is disappointed at Celestia's decision. They strike a bargain wherein if Cadance decides she would rather hibernate again after ten years in modern Equestria, Celestia will return her to this state until the Crystal Empire returns.
1990 AD: Twilight sees Celestia raise the sun at the Summer Sun Celebration.
1991 AD: Twilight's parents enrol her in Celestia's Academy For Gifted Unicorns. Rainbow Dash performs her first Sonic Rainboom. The Mane Six get their cutie marks. Spike is hatched.
1992 AD: Cadance foalsits Twilight, meeting Shining Armor in the process.
1998 AD: Cadance has decided not to return to hibernation, attributing it to her association with Twilight.
2010 AD: Nightmare Moon returns from her banishment and is purified by the Elements of Harmony working at full strength. Princess Luna rejoins her sister on the throne. The series begins. (Joe appears in Equestria, YAHES begins)
* Celestia refers to Starswirl as “young” because he always seemed young to her, even when he died of old age.
EDIT: I think I've figured out what to do for Sunset Shimmer. She's born the same year as Twilight, but taken as Celestia's apprentice the year before Twilight. The two never actually meet, Celestia dividing her time between her princess duties and her teaching duties. Sunset hears about the other apprentice from some of the people around the castle (Twilight doesn't because she's always got her muzzle in a book), including rumours that the other apprentice has the other princess as a foalsitter.
Sunset sees Twilight one day with a couple stacks of books on either side of her and correctly deduces that this filly is the other apprentice. She attempts to get Twilight's attention, but Twi's too engrossed in her reading to notice her at all. Frustrated, Sunset believes that Twilight has been given special treatment and been taught more (however, Twilight was just doing independent research). This is her Start of Darkness.
One day, five years before the start of the series, while waiting for Celestia for their next lesson, an object falls through the Mirror portal and she picks it up before going through with the strange object. As she's exploring the new world, the portal seals itself that night, trapping her in the human world. When Celestia doesn't come after her, she believes herself to be abandoned and decides to get revenge by becoming an important figure in the human world, which mutates into a desire to take over Equestria with people from the human world. However, a quirk of the portal de-aged her to be physically nine years old in the human world, despite being nineteen in Equestria, so it will take her quite some time to accomplish her goals.
I love the timeline you made. But I want to know. Are you going to use the comic books story arc(s) in the story?
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I've only read the Chrysalis arc of the comics, so I don't think so. If I manage to get them from somewhere (which will require funds) I might, but at the moment I've only got the show's canon supplemented by the Crystal Heart Spell novella involved in this.
I hate this idea. I really, really hate this idea. Sure, I can understand where it comes from, but I still despise it. Let's look at the transcript:
Nowhere is it said that this is the Summer Sun Celebration immediately after Luna's purification, only that the change has occured. Celestia is at least a thousand years old. The novelty of the situation probably isn't going to wear off after one Summer Sun Celebration for her. Heck, it may be ten or twenty before the millennium of regret is cleared up. (Yes, I'm aware that Celestia's speech at the end of the two-parter rather spoils this idea, but it's not completely disproven. Again, she could be savoring the moment.)
My pet peeves aside, that's an excellent looking timeline.
I really had expected the mane six to be around 17-20 years old..
Anyway, thanks for doing this research, honestly I wouldn't have done it myself. That's for being lazy.
You totally put the mane six in a different perspective for me.
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I personally don't care much for the one year timeline either, but it's a viable situation. My excuse is going to be that the Summer Sun Celebration is on a rotation through various Equestrian cities, and she just doesn't get back to Canterlot and do it there until the Season 4 premiere, but gives that speech in every city she goes to in the meantime.
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Oh, someone else did the research, I just found it on TV Tropes.