Alicorn Headcanon and MLP Metaphysics · 10:51am Nov 24th, 2014
A note to anyone reading the following blog at this stage:
This document is now obsolete. It is to be read only with the understanding that this is where things were in my mind barely three months into the project. As I write this, it is now over three years into the project and things have been refined quite a bit. So the following is for amusement and historical purposes only.
So here is the alicorn and metaphysics headcanon which features in the Nightmare Nyx universe. To properly convey this idea, I need to get into a bit of MLP theological headcanon as well.
In the Beginning
What... You didn't think this could begin any other way, did you? What form of theological trouble am I about to stir up?
In the beginning, Lauren Faust (aka the Fausticorn) created the MLP universe and the ponies which lived therein. It is a different realm from our universe, and operates under a different, yet strangely familiar, set of natural laws. Laws, such as magic, and friendship, and harmony. Within this universe are many sapient mythological creatures who all share a small unnamed planet that has an even smaller sun and moon orbiting it. There are also other worlds in this universe which are as-yet unexplored by the inhabitants of this world. Because this universe is so alien from our own, it is often tempting to try to cry foul on its internal workings simply because such workings do not align with our universe. Such a temptation would be a mistake, as this is a work of fiction and therefore has taken on a life of its own.
Among the natural laws of this universe - this poniverse, is the FiM Principle. This is the cornerstone of the metaphysical framework which underlies everything else within the poniverse. It is the bottom layer upon which rests principles such as virtues and special talents. It also governs the function of the Aether and the Lifestream, two parallel dimensions invisible from the physical universe. Within the FiM Principle lies infinite power which, on occasion, takes the form of a rainbow colored deus ex machina to inexplicably solve specific difficult problems too great for our residents to manage on their own.
Most creatures inhabiting this world are mortal beings much like we are familiar with. They have formed families, cultures, governments and nations quite similar to our own because their creator is one of our own. We need not be surprised at this similarity; any created being will have intrinsic knowledge of their creator even if they are not consciously aware of it. So in the land of Equestria, three tribes, or subspecies of ponies have formed a symbiotic relationship and live together under the harmony of the FiM Principle.
But it was not always so.
Alicorns
An alicorn is a pony with the traits of all three subspecies of normal ponies. They possess exceptional qualities of strength, flight, and magic. Alicorns are also immortal. They mature, but do not age beyond their prime. They can still be killed, but they do not grow old and die of natural causes.
There are four types of alicorns: ascended, manufactured, wild, and domestic. The latter two are considered "natural" alicorns and were born as alicorns. The "manufactured" variety were created artificially by technical and magical experimentation. They feature in the Fallout: Equestria story, and will feature in my Nightmare Nyx sequel if I end up writing it.
The ascended type are born as normal ponies, and through some rare or exceptional feat, acquire the traits of all three pony subspecies. These alicorns are only marginally more powerful than normal ponies, but they are incredibly virtuous. They have slightly better magic, flying and strength than a normal pony. Physically, they appear exactly like a winged unicorn. This would describe Twilight and Cadence currently.
Natural alicorns are very different.
Every few millennia, a pony is born different than the rest. Ordinarily, the genetics produce an earth pony, a pegasus, or a unicorn. While the genetics for all three species are contained within everypony, as a rule, only one of the species traits is physically represented in the foal. But on extremely rare occasions, a foal is born with the magical properties of all three species—strength, flight, and magic. There is also a relatively high chance for one to be born if one or both parents are ascended alicorns. Natural alicorns also almost always produce alicorn foals, but are more often than not infertile.
Natural alicorns are vastly different than the others and mature in a very different way. Physically, they are noticeably taller than normal ponies, and their horns are roughly twice as long. While they can be killed, it is quite a feat to do so, for they are exceptionally powerful. Also, natural alicorns have access to certain physical processes in the universe which others do not. Perhaps the most important trait of the natural alicorn is that they are not inclined to adopt a virtue of the FiM Principle. Natural alicorns, if left unchecked, will mature into a very different sort of pony than any other—a pony who ultimately puts the entirety of civilization at great risk.
Unless otherwise stated, for the rest of this article, "alicorns" refers to "natural alicorns".
Virtues
What is a virtue? For a pony, their virtue is normally discovered after they reach adulthood and go through some difficult challenges. It is that one thing which they will not compromise, no matter what. This is not to say that the pony never makes mistakes which contradict his or her virtue. No pony is a paragon of their virtue. However, once a pony has discovered their virtue, they will never abandon it. They can always be counted on to exhibit that trait throughout their lives.
Discovering your virtue is similar to discovering your special talent. When a young pony discovers their special talent, a magical mark appears on their flank indicating this. It is a permanent trait that a pony can be proud of. Similarly, when a pony discovers their virtue and makes that their identity, a permanent change occurs which protects that pony from certain types of corruption. For regular ponies, it is simply a matter of discovering their virtue, where for natural alicorns, it does not happen unless it is deliberately chosen.
Within the FiM Principle, many virtues exist. We are aware of several. Virtues such as Honesty, Loyalty, and Kindness are but a few. There are, of course, many more virtues than the six which comprise the Elements of Harmony. In Fallout: Equestria, we discover that one pony's virtue is Sacrifice. This will not wield an Element, but it will protect this pony from being destroyed by the desperate and unforgiving circumstances of the Wasteland.
While every pony has one particular virtue which most identifies their character, pony culture revolves around every virtue that is a part of the FiM Principle. Ponies exhibit many virtues which are not their own personal identity. For example, Fluttershy is usually generous. Applejack is usually loyal. Twilight is usually kind. This is simply a part of the pony culture. But it is in the act of discovering your own virtue that makes a pony able to weather even greater storms of life, and possibly some very influential external pressures as well.
The Aether
The Aether is a dimension where time, space, matter, and energy do not operate the same as in normal space. In the Aether, there is no discernible terrain. It appears as an abstract collection of stars and glowing nebulae. On rare occasions, a pony might find themselves in this realm due to some feat of powerful magic. Little is known of this place, but it is theorized that an alicorn can sometimes use it to travel to any of a million distant worlds by simply walking through a door. When one enters the Aether with the thought of someone on their mind, it has a tendency to bring you into an encounter with that person provided they have also been in the Aether.
The Aether is also a source of unlimited power which can be accessed by certain alicorns. Any alicorn with access to the Aether can perform incredible feats of creation or destruction in the physical world.
Any alicorn's horn (whether natural or ascended) is permanently tied to the Aether in the sense that it connects the alicorn's soul to this realm which provides them with their immortality. When an alicorn is killed, their horn remains connected causing the alicorn to continue to exist alive within the Aether. However, its nonlinear timeline makes encounters unpredictable from the perspective of the physical world's timeline.
Wake up, Twilight!
I think I can see the Palace from up here!
The Lifestream
The Lifestream is the collection of "extra" invisible attributes localized in parallel with the observable universe. If you had a pair of glasses which allowed you to see the Lifestream, you would see that it overlays the physical world, taking up the same space.
The Lifestream is the physical world's metadata.
Ambient magic exists in the Lifestream. When a unicorn's energy reserves are less than full capacity, they will recharge from the Lifestream. If there is no ambient magic in the local Lifestream, then a unicorn cannot recharge lost energy. If a unicorn over-exerts, then they will burn out and need a short while to recover. Any spell which is set off without a unicorn directly powering it uses magic from the Lifestream. This limits the usefulness of triggered spell mechanisms.
Ambient emotional residue exists in the Lifestream. What this means is that your emotional state emits energy into the Lifestream that slowly dissipates with time. Changelings can "smell" this and can tell when someone nearby is giving off strong emotions. Love, in particular, the changelings need in order to survive. So their only food source is emissions of love left in the Lifestream by others.
This is the place where "life" exists. What this means is that any sapient being actually "lives" in the Lifestream while their body is in the physical world. For mortals, the part of them which is called a soul is here. Full information on someone's physical form and personality is here. Changelings can access this instantly with a unique part of their brain, allowing them to mimic the form and style of someone they want to impersonate. Personal thoughts are private though, so a changeling doesn't have access to that.
Very few others can directly access the Lifestream, and if they do, they aren't conscious as to what is going on. For example, Pinkie Pie's "pinkie sense" comes from here, as do her fourth-wall violations and bizarre intuitive shenanigans. Also, shared information from the Lifestream can enable dozens of random ponies to suddenly burst into synchronized song and dance.
Magical Burnout
When a unicorn uses magical power, it is drained from their body through their horn which focuses it on the spell being cast. Every spell requires a certain amount of energy, and some (such as shields) require additional energy to maintain. Unicorns recharge their energy from the Lifestream automatically. When the unicorn is low on energy, they begin to feel exhausted. This is a good warning sign to take a break and wait for energy levels to replenish. However, if the unicorn casts spells beyond their capacity to power them, they will burn out. This is a painful process which causes temporary damage to the neural link to the horn. This is similar to looking at the sun and getting temporary blindness or hearing a very loud sound knocking out hearing for a while. For the unicorn, they will be unable to cast spells for a day or so. Their ability will fully recover usually within two or three days.
For alicorns, it is different. Alicorns who still draw their magic from the Lifestream can burn out just like unicorns. The consequences are more serious for them because an alicorn spell will complete despite the lack of power, where a unicorn spell will simply fail. When an alicorn burns out, they forcibly drain magical energy from nearby sources. This would most often be nearby unicorns, and perhaps also create a void in the local Lifestream which might have negative environmental impacts for a while depending on the severity. In addition, these alicorns will be seriously injured by the burnout. Unlike the unicorn which has a headache and may be nauseous for a day or so, the alicorn is in a life-threatening situation and knocked unconscious for hours or days. Recovery in a hospital is recommended.
Wild alicorns draw their energy directly from the Aether, and as an infinite energy source, it is not susceptible to depletion. All unicorns and alicorns have a specific 'throughput' which is the rate which energy can push through their horn. Wild alicorns have an extremely high throughput, which is around ten-thousand times greater than a regular unicorn. If the wild alicorn has a high enough throughput, it would be very difficult to burn out at all. However, it is still possible to do, and if the wild alicorn channels more energy than they are capable, it will indeed result in a burnout. This is a fatal situation, and is one of the few ways a wild alicorn can actually be killed.
Alicorn Early Development
Around the age of ten, most standard unicorns have begun to practice basic magic which will grow in strength over the next twenty years or so until their horn has fully matured. Further study and training will augment this, and unicorn schools and spell libraries provide training to help them perform more advanced magical feats into adulthood.
When an alicorn is born, they are much like any normal foal. Their magic is extremely weak and must develop over time. Like mortal unicorns, alicorn children recharge from the Lifestream and depend on internal reserves for all spellcasting. Alicorn children progress similarly to standard unicorns except with notably stronger levels of magic. Their horns mature at a different rate than other ponies. A ten-year-old natural alicorn is on par with an adult standard unicorn. A fifteen-year-old natural alicorn may be indistinguishable from an adult ascended alicorn.
D'aww. Teenage Woona can still kick your butt!
Alicorn Puberty
Alicorns go through a physical and psychological change sometime in their early twenties as their horn matures, which gives them phenomenal power and changes their moral character. Within the span of a few months, up to a year, the alicorn will complete this transformation and be nearly omnipotent. These are "wild" alicorns. There are key symptoms of this change.
The earliest symptom that this is taking place is that the alicorn's horn throughput momentarily and dramatically increases. This creates an uncontrolled outburst of intense magical power. The horn is beginning to expect that unlimited pool of power of the Aether, but it has not yet matured enough to tap it. If the local Lifestream does not have enough to supply the spell, nearby ponies may be tapped as well. Unicorns would involuntarily contribute their energy toward the spell, possibly burning them out
Over time, nightmares will occur, tempting the alicorn to take refuge in a new identity as a wild alicorn. They will try to convince the alicorn that staying the way they are is not safe. This temptation will persist and increase over time, and eventually invade the waking state in addition to the nightmares. The temptation feels alien at first, suggesting the alicorn embrace something they do not consider normal or valid. Over time, the alicorn will become confused as to which is correct, and ultimately, their former identity will be the one which feels alien. This back and forth struggle will be affected by how much the alicorn resists it. And resisting it always involves embracing mortal pony virtues. The more the alicorn values the lives of mortal ponies, the longer they can hold out resisting the transformation.
Over time, the alicorn will begin having brief moments where their horn does access the Aether directly, bypassing their internal energy storage. This may happen during times of high stress or urgency.
New skills will be developed which utilize the Aether. This could be something profound but highly specific such as Celestia learning to move the sun. These skills are not lost if the transformation is halted.
The alicorn's overall physical strength will increase, allowing them to take even more punishment without risk of harm. They will become more proficient in combat as well.
The alicorn's moral degradation would become noticable, making it difficult to see what is important. They would stop "caring" as much, becoming indifferent and perhaps having a form of amnesia where they temporarily forget key moments in their lives which connected them to others in a meaningful way. This can be particularly confusing as they struggle to maintain a grip on their identity.
Alicorn Late Development
Because an alicorn begins life just like any mortal pony, they identify with the pony culture to a large degree through their childhood. However, after 'alicorn puberty' has progressed far enough, serious moral changes take place. The first thing that happens is they begin to realize that mortal ponies are quite inferior. The alicorn will view themselves as superior to mortal ponies in every way. They will challenge authority, and make up their own rules. They will take action without consulting others, and put others' lives at risk to further their own agenda.
After a while, the alicorn will gain mastery over the Aether, utilizing it to their will. At this stage, the transformation is likely irreversible. Before long, the alicorn will fully abandon ties with the mortals, forging their own path separate from them. They will cease viewing the mortals as "people" and forget that they were once like them.
Next, the alicorn will either view the mortals as an annoyance or as a form of amusement. Neither would go well for the mortals. At this stage, the alicorn is a demigod existing in the same world as mortals. Every action they do can potentially kill untold numbers. The mortals learn that their only choice is to try and avoid the alicorn at all costs.
Game Over
The predictable outcome of unchallenged physical superiority is that the wild alicorn will become a ruthless tyrant or dictator. They will rule without pity or mercy, because they have ceased caring about the FiM Principle and all which it represents. This is the most dangerous phase of the alicorn's maturation process in the sense that it is likely to annihilate pony society, permitting only a few scant survivors to hide from them and wait for this phase to be over. Generations may pass under the alicorn's uncaring rule, while he makes playthings of the ponies for his own amusement. The alicorn may even still remember the restrictions of the FiM Principle which he was raised under, and openly defile anything which represents it. Such an event would mark a full reset for pony culture and civilization.
The final phase of the alicorn's development is the point where they have detached entirely from their identity as ponies at all. This could be anywhere from five years to a thousand years after the wild alicorn matures. They have become bored with ruling, and bored with mortal ponies in general. Nothing about the mortals interests them, and as a result, they release their grip on the ponies. They may become nihilistic and fall into a depression, possibly committing suicide (one of the few ways an alicorn at this stage can still die). They may advance to the point where they venture into the Aether and go off in search of more interesting things in the poniverse. It is unknown what they will do, but ultimately, they will no longer care about the affairs of the mortal ponies. They will then vanish, never to be seen again.
At this point, the mortal ponies can gather and begin rebuilding their society. It could take generations to recover, but eventually the ponies who embrace the FiM principle will thrive and form a new culture. Until the next alicorn is born.
Because a natural alicorn's power comes from the Aether, when they enter it, they are no longer strengthened by it. They do not have the command over matter in this realm that they do in the physical universe. An alicorn with many enemies would be unwise to reenter the Aether.
Alicorn Death
If an alicorn is killed and its horn severed from its skull, the horn will transform into an adaptive crystal artifact that maintains some of the properties of the alicorn it belonged to. Alicorn horns are nearly indestructible and have a permanent connection to the Aether which persists after death, creating a bridge to the physical world via their horn. For wild alicorns in particular, the horn-crystal can access the Aether's power. If the crystal is wielded by any pony who has strong enough of the correct trait, it can activate and be used as a tool making nearly unlimited power available for a short period of time. The six Elements of Harmony are examples of this.
Virtues and Alicorns
There is a way to derail the development of a "wild" alicorn. And that is for the alicorn to choose to discover their virtue and make that their identity. This permanently integrates the FiM Principle into the alicorn, thereby insulating them from the destructive hedonistic path which a wild alicorn always follows. When an alicorn discovers his or her virtue, they can no longer learn new ways to access the Aether, but retain the abilities they have learned up until that point. For the vast majority of their magical skills, they must use the Lifestream like everyone else. They do retain a much higher capacity than normal unicorns or even ascended alicorns. But they would not become demigods or have the ability to lay waste to entire nations by themselves.
For this "domesticated" alicorn has chosen a different "track" of sorts. The rules have changed, and thus the results will change. Tapping into the FiM Principle enables them to enjoy coexistence with mortal ponies, and adopt their values as their own. They can have families and life-long friendships. They retain their immortality, and with their exceptional (yet limited) strength, they fall into natural positions as benevolent monarchs and rulers over the mortal ponies. This is the path both Celestia and Luna chose when they were young.
Celestia and Luna
Long ago, two alicorns were born, who out of their love for the mortal ponies, chose to discover their virtues shortly after reaching adulthood.
Celestia discovered her virtue, Benevolence gave her the nature of always caring for others and guiding them in life along the paths which enabled them to grow into their greatest potential. Celestia's natural gift enabled her to be an inspiration to thousands of mortal ponies, and her diplomatic skills are second to none. Celestia's virtue enabled her to become a natural, kind ruler, and also a mentor to many.
Luna likewise, discovered that her virtue, Righteousness gave her a keen sense of morality and justice. Always the champion of those who were less fortunate, Luna has spent her life in the role of protecting the helpless and righting that which is wrong. This is seen in the excellent video Children of the Night, where Luna takes orphans out of a desperate situation and provides them a loving home and personal value. Luna's sense of justice was employed in Past Sins where she carefully researched all the facts of the situation in order to impartially and fairly pass judgement on Nyx.
Both Luna and Celestia learned limited use of the Aether as older children. Celestia was taught how to enter into the Aether and access its nonlinear timeline links to the physical world. She learned that from within the Aether, she could recall snippets of history in the form of windows that accessed various moments in time. Likewise, Luna was taught how to access the dreamscapes of other ponies, giving her the ability to lucidly interact with anyone who is dreaming, and in fact, join dreams together as a way of meeting in secret with those whom she chooses. Both sisters also were trained to manage the sun and moon, manipulating their positions in the sky each day and night. These feats are too advanced for magic from the Lifestream to achieve.
Nightmare Moon
The tragedy of Nightmare Moon was deeper than anyone knows. It is often asked why Celestia chose to banish her sister rather than subdue her. And how did Luna become vulnerable to this change in the first place? Was it really as simple as mere jealousy?
I would say that it was a chance unexpected exposure to a specific and powerful form of dark magic which led to Luna's downfall. In the (also excellent) video Fall of the Crystal Empire, we see Celestia and Luna storming the castle of King Sombra, who was himself taken over by this particular dark magic. A battle ensues, and Celestia is knocked unconscious. Luna confronts Sombra with (in accordance to her virtue) righteous fury. The unexpected exposure to the dark magic infects her soul, and a very brief effect takes place.
What just happened? That was Luna being separated from her virtue. Oh, she's still the same pony, but she is now back on the track of a wild alicorn. Her strength now comes from the Aether, and she will cease to care about the FiM Principle, instead gravitating quickly toward whatever personally gives her pleasure. In Luna's case, it would be the desire for admiration of her "beautiful night" which she had felt disappointed that other ponies slept through. Such things were no big deal to Righteous Luna. However "wild" hedonistic Luna, or Nightmare Moon thought that this was very important indeed, and decided to kick off her new identity by making night eternal.
It wasn't an immediate change either. All that happened was Luna was put back on that wild alicorn path, bringing her into the later stages of the "alicorn puberty" phase. Her powers were immediately increased, and her morality became scrambled. The first thing she did was to easily defeat Sombra and banish the entire Crystal Empire. Would Righteous Luna do this to a couple thousand innocent crystal ponies? This isn't something conventional power can achieve. Afterward, Celestia wakes up and Luna appears as normal, not as Nightmare Moon. She is transitioning but hiding it. Later, when she is ready, she dramatically reveals her intentions to Celestia.
Sneaky
But it would not have stopped there. No, Nightmare Moon was not merely "Evil Luna". She was a wild alicorn now, and Celestia would have known what the end result of that would be. It would have been the annihilation of pony civilization, and another resetting with a handful of survivors to rebuild after Luna finally lost interest and moved on, or killed herself. Not willing to give Luna much time to grow beyond Celestia's strength, she made the quick, but agonizing decision to banish her sister to the moon permanently, thus side-stepping the consequences of a wild alicorn growing in strength and destroying everything.
The hope of ending the cycle
Every few millennia, an alicorn foal is born. If the alicorn chooses to remain wild, they will ultimately grow up and destroy pony civilization, then vanish. After the reset, ponies must rebuild and eventually the cycle repeats. When a new alicorn is born, ponies have a choice to make. Do they kill the foal, or do they allow it to grow up? If they can raise the child well, and this alicorn grows up do discover his or her virtue, then they will become a powerful asset aligned with the FiM Principle. They will be protectors of ponies and their ways. However a wild alicorn is much more powerful than a domesticated one. Perhaps ten to fifty times more powerful. If a new alicorn foal does not discover their virtue before the alicorn puberty transformation is complete, they will grow in strength and quickly become unstoppable.
There is one way the cycle might end. And it is to somehow raise up enough domesticated alicorns to be able to defend against the wild ones. Currently, Equestria has two domesticated alicorns who are quite powerful. If a new alicorn foal were to be discovered, it would be the utmost importance to ensure that this child is raised well, and discovers their virtue. If that does not happen, then only Celestia and Luna have the strength to defeat the new wild one. And that is only a brief window, because the wild alicorn will rapidly grow beyond the strength of the two royal sisters.
If the new alicorn does discover their virtue however, then Equestria will have three domesticated alicorns to defend it. That will increase the chances of success in stopping any young wild alicorns who decide to cause trouble. This iterative progression will continue to reduce the risk until finally one day there would be a significant number of natural born domesticated benevolent alicorns so that even if a new alicorn were born and choose to remain wild, the existing protectors of Equestria would be able to prevent the destruction of pony civilization, and the cycle of resets would end.
Why did I write this?
In Fallout Equestria, it often bothered me that Celestia and Luna permitted the war with the zebras to go on for so long in a stalemate which lasted two decades. If they were truly powerful alicorns, then why did they not participate in the battle and win the war themselves? There are only two answers. Either alicorns are never really very strong, or these sisters were somehow weaker than other alicorns.
It also covers the idea that Twilight's ascension was not really a big deal and wouldn't interfere with her fate in Fallout Equestria, as much as I don't like it. Clearly Twilight being an alicorn has also had almost no impact on her throughout MLP Season 4. This is unforgivable if alicorns are universally superpowered.
Secondly, in my story there is an alicorn and I need to balance her power. On one hand, I want there to be an evil plot to take advantage of her natural alicorn powers. This requires alicorns to have immense power which is only depicted in stories like Immortal Game (which I have not yet read). So the potential of an alicorn having that kind of power is a central plot element for my story. And yet I need this alicorn to also be rather underpowered even in comparison to Luna herself. This I explain with age. This alicorn is quite young, and has not had time to develop her strength. She is an effective combatant, perhaps as mighty as ten ponies. But she will not win the war by herself, and thus Fallout Equestria canon is preserved.
I also can have a main theme in the story where this character is in search of her virtue. Discovering her virtue will cancel the risk of becoming that corrupt, dangerous creature that can end the world as we know it. The internal struggles, and temptations against her natural "wild" self will always be present until this virtue is discovered.
Finally, I just find the concept to be interesting, and I love the idea of rationalizing the fantasy world of MLP finding ways that all of the crazy stuff somehow makes sense. I think this is a compelling headcanon that can add a lot of life to a story. 
Edit: nevermind, I just read over a important part.
2616608
You're correct in that the vast majority of my post is not theology related. However I did have to touch on it (very) briefly to set the framework for the rest of the post.
Theological parts of this post are specifically, that Faust (sitting in the role of God here) created the poniverse, and that there is a metaphysical (supernatural) element called the FiM Principle, which would have been placed there by Faust, the creator. This principle is essential for the rest of the headcanon to make any sense, being that I tie in both virtues and cutie marks to it. If I left the brief theological mention out of the headcanon entirely, then it would beg the question as to the origins of this FiM Principle and I'd have to (likely fail at) inventing some sort of naturalistic explanation for it.
The supernatural side of things (beyond mere unicorn magic) would be the advent of cutie marks (which seem to be more or less immutable) and also the rainbow beams deus ex machina which I'm just going to go ahead and attribute that as well, to the theological side of this, because wow there is just no natural way to explain why the rainbow beams trump absolutely everything.
2616656
Theology is the study of any aspect of God or anything which exists as a supernatural consequence of God's actions or attributes. It does not necessitate the concept of worship, although any talk of worship would also fall under this category.
Also since you mentioned it... I do not think it's unreasonable to consider that ponies might actually worship Faust. She is, after all, their creator, and worship is merely an acknowledgement that someone else is greater than you - which would be accurate for the ponies, because Faust (or any MLP author really) is infinitely more powerful than the ponies.
Ordinarily I loathe any sort of theology in alternate universe fiction because I am very firm in my theology in the real world and I don't like mixing it up like this. I also really don't like metareferences as a general rule, so I would not be referring to my God in the poniverse, at all. This is also why in my story there is absolutely no reference to Celestia as a deity or anything at all like that. I always thought the idea of ponies saying "thank Celestia" was completely ridiculous. You can't thank someone for something which they could not possibly be responsible for.
But I can accept the concept of a transcendent creator (Lauren Faust in this case) because it does make a lot of sense. She did after all, create the poniverse, and its people. And even it's "Friendship is Magic" principle! I'm fine with that. Folks in the poniverse could even conceivably debate with one another over the existence of Faust. Wouldn't that be interesting.
After all, they have no direct physical evidence for her existence, and yet she does exist. It's really quite an interesting concept. I might make a one-shot about that.
As far as my story goes though, I'm just looking to attribute this idea of virtues and cutie marks to something supernatural rather than natural. The theology behind making Faust the initiating entity works pretty well.
I have a headcanon that stipulates that a powerful pegasus and unicorn could produce an alicorn offspring. Normal unicorns and pegasi and earth ponies possess a finite amount of magic. Take unicorns for example. They would have a magical 'reserve' from which they draw power from, like a battery. When it gets close to depletion, they simply rest, have a meal, or whatever and it recharges over a certain period of time.
Lets take the Thor 2 movie on principle. Loki said that, while the 'gods' of Asgaard are NOT immortal, the magical abilities they possess make them live about 5000 years, give or take 500 years. That could certainly be the case with Celestia and Luna. Extremely long lived because of the raw power they possess.
So their magic is essentially fucktoupling in size because they possess the powers of all three combined races. Why not say that they mature three times faster after the fact?
Lesson here kiddies. Don't piss off Celestia.
All in all, I love your alicorn headcanon!
so I think this post clarified for me a couple of issues I had raised in private with you about whether or note the "nature" of the alicorn was to become evil.
My reading of this post is that Alicorns are essentially not born with a special talent or virtue. They can choose to adopt one later out of love , but they do not wish to adhere to the Fim principle from the word go. The bad side of this is that it basically makes them a moral and thus a threat to civilization, but the benefit to the alicorn is that essentially it opens up magic to them , making them extraordinarily powerful.
this leads me to a couple of questions. Before you answer me please not that I do not mean this questions as tests of the logical strength of your ideas, so dont answer the way you would answer if I was raising these points while editing your writing. Answer based on your headcannon .
1. So In my own " cosmological theology" of equestria that I messaged you with about a week ago, a ponies magical ability is tied closely to their " virtue" special talent. faust in a way controls all the magic in Equestria, since as the creator god, she created it. Those she gives ponies magical power in the hope that they will use it to live up to their virtue by using their special talent in a morally good way. In a very literal way this is " god's plan" for them. This doesn't mean they lack free will. they do have free will and can choose not to do so, but in many ways they will have some predisposition to work in fields that are conducive to the development of their talent, since their magic is at its strongest when they are perforiming their special talent.
However it appears that in your reading Born ( as opposed to ascended) alicorns , do not have a special talent. I have always assumed that a ponies magic truly blossoms when they find their special talent, but it appears a totally amoral alicorn can grow to world wrecking levels of magic without so much as looking for their special talent.
so my question is: where do Alicorns get their magic? why does Faust grant them magic? or does faust not control magic in your version of Equestria
second question:
Given the long history of Born alicorns wrecking equestria.. why do Ponies not kill young alicorns on sight? is it because they respect Luna and Celestia so much? is it because the masses of equestria are unaware of this dark history?
Seems to me like in this scenario the instinctual thing to do if a pony ran into an Alicorn who was much too young to perform the kind of magical feat that would cause them to ascend is to KILL IT ASAP since it is a " Born" alicorn and those , with the exceptions of Luna and Celestia ( and luna came close!) have destroyed equestria many times before.
What stops them from doing so?
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Oh this is fun stuff. I appreciate the intellectually stimulating dialog!
First, I need to emphasize the distinction between Special Talent and Virtue. The former leads to a cutie mark, and is an acknowledgement of a particular natural skill or affinity. The latter would be a character trait. It is defined as that one thing which you will never compromise on, no matter what. Of course, it is also a given that no pony is a paragon of their virtue, and not expected to be perfect.
Virtues are also potentially Elements of Harmony. So Rainbow Dash's virtue would be Loyalty. This isn't a separate principle from the MLP canon model. It is however, expanded in the sense that there are more than six virtues. Not all virtues would wield elements, but there may be more elements discovered than the original six.
The special talent / cutie mark happens at around the age of 8-12, while the virtue is discovered sometime after adulthood.
For cutie marks, the alicorn children would likely act identically to mortal pony children because at that age, they are still largely adoptive of their parents' social rules and moral values, as well as those of the culture which they are raised in. So an alicorn child will be just as anxious to find their special talent as a mortal pony.
For virtues, the main difference between alicorns and mortal ponies is that mortal ponies are are naturally inclined to seek out their virtue, where an alicorn does it only if they value the FiM Principle. This would be a direct result of being raised with good values.
Because of this, the alicorn adults who have yet to discover their virtue are at great risk of becoming an extreme threat to society. If left to their natural devices, they simply would remain wild and continue along that path.
Ok so you've put an element of sovereignty into it. If that's the route you're taking, then you've got tons of problems to solve if you want to explain why the world is the way it is. An active, omniscient, omnipotent deity would be extremely difficult if not impossible to incorporate into a fictional universe.
Your position seems to put Faust in the position of a sovereign god actively managing the situation. If that's the case, then I have a series of questions for your MLP theology as it relates to free will, and the goodness/benevolence of Faust, as well as the problem of evil if Faust truly is omnipotent. You also have some very sticky transcendence problems to solve, as well as multidimensional static frame of reference problems. These types of issues require your deity to be more and more like the real life biblical God, which I'm guessing is not your intention. It's all very interesting philosophy and I guess it just depends on how much you're willing to "fudge" for the sake of limited fictional scope, and how much detail you think you'll need to add in order to increase suspension of disbelief.
What it really depends on is whether the Creator is constantly active and deliberately guiding the fate of the world. The irony I suppose, is that we seem to have reversed positions from our real life stances in this case. I'm taking less of a sovereign play on the situation, and adopting a more Deist MLP theology simply because I believe it would be impossible to have a logically consistent, and good "active, personal" Creator in a fictional universe unless (a) the Creator was morally bankrupt, or (b) the fictional universe also included the concepts of law, sin, consequences of sin, redemption, etc. I'm not trying to make a Christian allegory like Narnia here (though I could). So Deism it is.
See above. They would have special talents.
However, their virtue is something which is discovered after adulthood. It also must be pursued for the right reason, otherwise the alicorn may end up identifying a false virtue, which will not result in being grounded in the FiM Principle. This presents an interesting problem for those trying to raise up an alicorn correctly. The young adult alicorn must discover their virtue based on how they were raised and their own personal values as opposed to doing it solely for the reason of being domesticated. So teaching the alicorn a sense of urgency to find that virtue, would actually backfire.
For "Special Talent" - no. It would not affect the alicorn the same way as the virtue. It is in identifying their virtue that prevents them from turning into a hedonistic angel of death.
Following a moral path doesn't necessarily lead to greater power. This could easily be seen as the pony parallel to the temptation of evil. Real world power is a significant lure of temptation, and as they say, "absolute power corrupts absolutely".
See previous statement on sovereignty, and why I think a fictional deity must follow Deism theology and cannot be a personal, active all powerful Creator God unless you are making a full-on Christian allegory.
As for where the alicorns got their magic: The available magic in the world is probably like a natural resource. Free for the taking depending on your gifts and abilities and circumstances. A natural alicorn would be "wired" to have more power just out of their nature, similar to how plutonium is radioactive and lead is stable.
If you want a theological answer to this, I suppose we could say that these alicorns were originally intended by the creator to be protectors or guardians, or maybe angelic servants. Heck they could be fit into the "fallen angel" category. Maybe alicorns were never meant to coexist with the mortals on this world. Maybe they were meant to exist on a different world, but somehow ended up here and are more or less like Kryptonians from the Superman mythos. I find that rather compelling.
I'd say yes that much history gets lost after each Reset. In the current situation, probably only Tia and Luna are even aware of it at all, with the exception of some rather ancient tomes which would have obscure references but not the full story. My villain would have one of these most likely.
Also, recall the end of my blog post where I talk about the way to end the cycle. Raising a natural alicorn to embrace FiM is really the only way to stop the cycle and the risk of future civilizations being lost. Killing an alicorn as a child may stop the immediate risk, but it also kills the chance to prevent future risks. If you kill your alicorn today, in 700 years someone else may not kill theirs or raise them well, and then everything you built will be lost.
There's also the parental love factor. Real life history is full of examples of kings trying to kill children to prevent something from happening. Usually this backfires. Parents hide their kids, etc. Even Twilight did this with Nyx! I'd say Past Sins gives us the perfect answer to your question.
Vests and enchanted glasses?
Culture being unaware of what natural alicorns can grow into?
Nobody being alive who remembers the last Reset?
Lots of things.
2624703 Okay so I laughed at "vests and enchanted glasses" as the reason why a mob doesnt arise and kill young alicorns everytime one is spotted.
Anyways two more questions I will ask them separately.
first the simpler one
1. I think something I remain a little confused about is the relationship between special talents and " virtue". I had always assumed they where closely linked. For example take the main charachter of the story you are presently writing. Her " special talent" is a special ability in defending the ponies she cares about. Her virtue ( if I remember correctly) is " valor". those seem like they correlate pretty closely. What is the relationship, if any, between a pony's special talent and their virtue in your cosmological theology?
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second question
At one point you state that when it comes to the role of the fictional creator god of Equestria, we take points of view that are contrary to the ones you and I espouse in real life. That seems pretty accurate. But I don't quite understand why a "fictional" god must act in a way that is weaker/ more hands off/ less theistic and more deistic than any actual god that may exist in the real world. From my perspective, a fictional god doesn't have to fit the parameters of the observable world, since they " live" in a completely fictional world that is not bound by reality ( it must be of course be internally logically consistent but i am sure you realise that is not what I am talking about). Or to put it in other words, put a god from our world into a fictional one and my " objections" to his or her existence vanish. I may debate about whether or not Jesus is the incarnation of God in this world, but when the same deity incarnates as Aslan in Narnia I have nothing to argue, because his activities in Narnia are set in a fictional world, are thus fictional themselves, and therefore do not have to obey logic , reason leave behind evidence etc. To sum it up, It seems to me like a god or gods should be " freer" in a fictional world than in this one, whereas you seem to think gods in fiction must be more " restricted" than in the real world.
So why is this? Why do you think a god operating in Equestria must be more constricted than one operating in this universe? Is it just so that you dont contradict the Ontological argument for god's existence or is there some other more narrative reason?
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I'd say they are two sides to the same coin. The special talent is skill based, where the virtue is character based. If embraced, both of these would work together to give the pony their purpose in life.
They very well could be linked, but not necessarily. Take the Mane-Six for example.
Rarity's special talent is finding gems and creating fashion, but her virtue is Generosity.
Applejack's special talent is managing an apple farm, but her virtue is Honesty.
Rainbow Dash's special talent is aerobatics and speed, but her virtue is Loyalty.
Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Twilight are the only ones who seem to have a direct link between their special talent and their virtue.
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I'm not familiar with the "ontological argument" so I can't comment on that, but I can try to start answering the question though I suspect it's much more lengthy an answer (in whole) than we have room for here.
To start with this specific question, I actually don't think a god operating in Equestria is more constricted than the one operating in reality. I would hold the same standards in both realms, which is the shortest answer to your question. The real God is perfect. It's impossible to make a fictional God perfect, and therefore a fictional God will be self contradictory at some point during the analysis. That's the shortest answer.
You just contradicted yourself. This also is a main supporting reason for my stance. A fictional creator God should obey logic, reason, etc. Just like the real one. So whatever an author invents better be able to explain the whole universe or it's not going to make sense. If the world which this deity exists in doesn't fit the description of said deity, then the story has a problem.
Because any omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, personal, active, living God is accountable and responsible for being able to logically explain the state of the world and all its people. If the observable world cannot be accounted for by the theology if the established deity, then there is a contradiction and the story is flawed.
To use a real world example, take any non-Christian who doesn't truly understand the faith and apply all the standard arguments he uses against Christianity. The Problem of Evil, the justification of eternal punishment, the nature of time and eternity, origins, the uncaused cause, the justification of imperfection, the free will argument... All of it. These "objections" would need to be applied to the fictional God and if that deity doesn't hold up to scrutiny, then the story has a big problem.
To camp on "the justification of imperfection" a moment, consider the fact that a perfect god would create perfect beings. Imperfection needs to be justified if it is observed. In the real world, we have a valid explanation for imperfection. In Equestria, what justifies it? Nothing. The characters must be flawed to be narratively interesting, but they must not be flawed if their creator is all powerful and benevolent. Unless we're going to fully dive in and include sin and the Fall to pony-land, there's no way to have a "good" god who is omnipotent, and yet still have imperfection and suffering.
In the case of Faust in your headcanon, you say that she directly controls the availability of magic in the world. Well if that's the case, then why is it that she allows magic to be used for evil purposes? This of course, is the ponified Problem of Evil. Why does evil exist if Faust is benevolent and omnipotent? You also have to explain whether or not there are moral laws in your universe. Assuming again the premise of a personal creator-god Faust, one needs to ask if ponies are given moral laws. If not, then does this not invite chaos and unlimited suffering? If there are moral laws, then what are they? What happens when ponies break these laws? If you say ponies don't break the laws, then I ask whether they truly have free will or not? If you say they have free will and occasionally break laws, then I ask what the punishment is? If you say the punishment is variable, then I ask where do you draw the line? There's all sorts of very sticky questions that come into play when you have a living god in a fictional universe. If you're not going to explore the ideas of sin, justice and redemption, then I think you'll have a fair number of problems trying to explain why the universe has suffering and evil if Faust is benevolent and all powerful.
I do not understand this mentality. As an objectivist, I believe a thing is true, or it is not true. Real or imaginary. In other words, what I personally believe has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on the actual real life spiritual situation. What is, is what is regardless of my belief. I see no reason to "go easy" on a fictional story if that story intends to be internally consistent. If on the other hand, the story is meant to be allegorical or poetic, then I can give it a pass as a work of subjectivity for the sake of enjoyment. That's fine. But a story which is meant to be plausible (like mine) I prefer the world to have as many logic leaks plugged as possible.
You just guessed by (FoE) true alicorn headcanon... good work.
Just most of my alicorns are much less individual than yours, their genesis is a bit less circle-of-destiny-driven and their system of morals and magic works different.
I like what you wrote.
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Cool! Do you have your headcanon written down anywhere? What are your version of alicorns specifically?
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I'm writing it down right about now.
If you formulate things, they tend to become much longer than initially thought...
Here it is...
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LOL no kidding eh? I didn't think this would end up being over 3000 words but it is!
LOL!
derpicdn.net/img/view/2014/3/16/576602__safe_princess+celestia_comic_spike_edit_idw_bath_trollestia_momlestia_text+edit.png
pfft. image won't go in-line. just click on it.
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Sometimes, smaller details pop up when you try to put thoughts into words.
Update:
In regards to the moving of the sun and moon by Celestia and Luna...
I'm just going to have to say that "moving the sun and moon about the sky" is something which the astrophysics were specifically designed for ponies to access, as opposed to them representing a standard of power that can be applied to things other than moving the sun and moon about the sky.
Therefore, it's merely operating machinery. Twilight did it in the final Season 4 episode. Celestia and Luna seem to do it quite casually, not really exerting themselves at all, in comparison to the fact that other much more mundane tasks are quite an effort.
I have revised this document with my current views on MLP metaphysics, and cleaned up the presentation.
Ooooh, details.
Can this do anything to a late-stage wild alicorn? Also, how does this relate to the tree of harmony? Does the tree of harmony exist in this continuity, and if so, what does it do?
Hmmm. How many of this world's mechanics were directly created by God!Fausticorn? I only ask because this is kinda-sorta implying that Lauren set up a cycle of mass genocide for the purposes of dramatic tension.
What's the in-universe reason for that? Does one exist?
Also, what defines a 'virtue'? Presumably it would tie back to The Almighty Fausticorn (all praise!) and her theoretical values being imposed on this universe, but that raises the question of why exactly alicorns need to become emotionally isolated sociopaths in order to achieve godhood. Is there some sort of anti-Faust?
Perhaps the grimdarkness of Kkat's Equestria is beginning to leak across dimensional boundaries!
Ah-hah, so Spell Nexus's resurrection spell would have drained the Everfree Forest's Lifestream energy to create the body of a wild alicorn physically identical to Nightmare Moon - at least in this continuity. Maybe.
On the Fo:E side of things, how do megaspells work? My understanding is that they amplify the effect of regular magic so that a healing spell resurrects a battlefield and a fire spell burns a city - how does that fit with this interpretation of magic? Do megaspells tap into the Aether somehow?
What are the limits on changeling shapeshifting? Can they, say, impersonate a dragon? What's stopping them from transforming into a wild alicorn? Do they need proportionate love in order to transform into high-energy forms like dragons or alicorns? If a changeling transformed into Twilight Sparkle, would it gain her casting strength? (Canterlot Wedding says not, but there you go.)
...this sounds suspiciously like Discord. Coincidence?
Speaking of Discord, what's he up to in the Nightmare Nyx continuity? You've previously stated that things proceed as per canon - plus the events of Past Sins - up until the S4 finale. Does that include Keep Calm and Flutter On? IIRC he was being used in statue form as the power source to some abomination of magitech in Fo:E...
"Alicorn Puberty" sounds like it was created specifically to create more tasty, tasty conflict for Nightmare Nyx. That's not a bad thing, but I'm not sure how you'd justify it in a universe where Friendship is Magic.
If this is the case, shouldn't there be a bunch of Elements of Sociopathy lying around from all the crazy dead wild alicorns of ages past?
Also, the Elements are the mutilated horns of dead gods...Yesh.
Wait...does that mean that the tree of harmony is some sort of alicorn graveyard?
How effective would the elements be against a late-stage wild alicorn? Do they stop their bearers from being instantly pulverised? If not, then why didn't Nightmare Moon or Discord do just that in their two-parters?
Also, how would lunar banishment prevent her power growth? Was she in suspended animation of some kind?
My favourite solution to this irritating logical flaw - outside of continuities where each race has their own alicorn-equivalents, like the Apotheosis continuity - is one from Night's Favored Child. It's a bit of international politics that states that if alicorns - just Nightmare Moon in that 'verse - ever directly participate in armed conflict, excluding defence of their countries, then all major civilised nations will declare war on Equestria.
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Many of your questions have to do with the broader topics of my universe and not so much this metaphysics model. I'll answer these here, but let's take further discussion into the forum.
The tree of harmony was planted by Luna. Its purpose was to join the six Elements together and cause them to not only enhance one another's power, but also ensure that the elements could not be wielded individually, nor by any single mortal pony, lest they be misused. The tree would slowly alter the Elements in this way over thousands of years.
There is a layer of separation between the Fausticorn and this world. What I've laid out basically, is that she created the overarching universe, but not the worlds which it contains. The Aether bridges together "pockets" of normal space which can contain whatever its designer wishes. In the case of the world our characters exist in, that was created 207,000 years ago. A blank realm was created by an alicorn and then populated with a sun, a moon, and a planet which held the various creatures we're familiar with. The Lifestream is also local to this realm, and was designed by the same alicorn.
You might consider the alicorns to be a fair bit higher up on the scale as far as sapient beings are concerned. This could be likened unto something along the lines of the free will issue. Alicorns are much closer to actual free agents than mortal ponies. The spectrum of possible characteristics of an alicorn goes way beyond that which mortal ponykind is bound to in Equestria. For Equestrian ponies naturally (and happily) fall in line with these preset virtues, which reduces the potential for serious conflict in a land as harmonious as Equestria. One could say that it's in their nature, as they were designed to be like that. However, anomalies occur, and not everypony connects with a virtue. Alicorns in particular only discover their virtue if they really push for it.
I wouldn't go that far, no. In keeping things simple, I'll say that the virtues are a local phenomenon to this realm (rather being universal). That way, other realms (which alicorns can transcend) are not locked into the same system. As such, it would be important for alicorns to not naturally lock onto a virtue that was designed to apply only in this one realm. Mortal ponies, however, were designed within this realm, and so it makes much more sense for them to be locked into that set of virtues.
Pretty much. The local drain was mentioned in Past Sins, if I recall. Not where I got the idea, but I think it fits well with what Pen Stroke described. Also, I should mention that it's not just "physically identical". Nyx actually is Nightmare Moon. The fact that she coexists with Luna is a paradox on the level of that one Star Trek episode where there are two Commander Rikers. Each one is authentic, and yet they are two distinct people.
Tooooo... answer your specific question, Spell Nexus is the researcher who designs the megaspells in my story. He works for Fluttershy's Ministry of Peace. The idea behind megaspells is that they are a magical framework which allows preprogrammed spells to work together to produce a more complex output. So the output of one spell becomes the input of the next spell in the framework. Someone very powerful gave Nexus the secret of the "amplification spell", but it cannot be cast because by itself, it does nothing. So Nexus' job has been to find a way to combine spells (which is similar to what he did when he created Nyx) in such a way that the amplification spell can be applied to any other spell and cause an effect several orders of magnitude greater. In my story, he is in the late stages of getting this to work.
Changelings are limited to the conservation of mass, so they can only alter their physical size if they alter their density. This limits their physical size to probably +/- 20% at most of their "natural" size. So they could impersonate a very young dragon, sure.
They could impersonate one, but magical powers are not created by superficial appearance. A changeling cannot even use unicorn magic after transforming into a unicorn. It's just a disguise.
It's not... a coincidence.
Discord has left the realm in my story. Once ponies and zebras started killing one another, it just wasn't fun anymore.
And yes, I'm keeping with Discord being friendly, per Season Four, friends with Flutters, etc.
No, you're thinking of Project Horizons, the non-canon beast of a story written by Somber.
That's because this transcends beyond the realm which our characters live in. This is simply how a wild alicorn comes into being. They are not born omnipotent. This isn't really a contrivance; unlimited power in the hooves of someone not mature enough to handle it would be pretty horrific. And so, there is a "coming of age" transformation process which all alicorns must go through which grants access to the Aether and fundamentally alters their core characteristics to be less like mortal ponies and more like the race of titans which they are a part.
Heh. That's one way of looking at it, yes.
The tree's purpose was to create a weapon—not to lay the Elements to rest.
Can they defeat a wild alicorn? I'd say so, since they already have when they were used against Nightmare Moon. Granted, she was not even close to fully skilled at the time, and Celestia only had moments to act before it might have been a lost cause. The longer she delayed, the more Nightmare Moon would discover what she is capable of. And being that Luna herself was fully aware of this weapon, its use as a surprise attack would have been lost on her.
The idea being that if the Elements are actually horns of other wild alicorns, they can all bring the full power of the Aether to bear against such a foe. And the fact that they are all applying different aspects of that power from six different angles, they effectively "box in" the target, not allowing them any sort of magical escape mechanism or ability to manipulate and deflect the forces by using their own strength.
But because this weapon was designed by Luna, it would not have existed in millennia past as means to respond to the various wild alicorns which have previously destroyed mortal civilizations.
I'd say that this was not just transportation, but a magical binding as well. So Luna would have been stripped of all her magical abilities while imprisoned. Supposedly she had external help in escaping? I'm not sure what fandom lore says. Zebra superstition is that the stars aided in her escape.