Ask Us - 8/28/15 · 7:19pm Aug 28th, 2015
It is Friday and that means it is time to answer reader questions! As always, if there is something you'd like to know, please visit the Ask Us form and send your question!
Shadow Ironsword asked:
Azurite, How's life going with Soarin and Sunny? :3 Having "fun" I hope.
A: Life has been pretty good! We're all living together. That is pretty cool. Sunny has been super busy with work so that has been stressful but that happens. I'd say things have been looking pretty great!
Rockabilly asked:
Silent Knight, if Luna were to change back into Nightmare Moon, what would you do? Are you trained to defeat her? Would you try to avoid hurting her since she is Luna?
SK: That would be a catastrophe. We absolutely aren't trained or prepared to defeat an alicorn that is empowered by dark magic. I guess we would have to go and find Twilight Sparkle. There are just some tasks the royal guard isn't suited for. In either event we would absolutely avoid hurting her. She would still be Princess Luna under there.
Pencil Melody asked:
How can you be so dense?
SK: Years of focusing on only one task.
Posted asked:
Care to share anything about the different nations/peoples of substance. How does territory work in the land? The Obsidian Dragon Flight kind of just moved into the heart of pony territory like it wasn't even a relevant thing. Then the next minute they were in formal negotiations based on a centuries old treaty. Another example the Nox ponies seem to be within the border of Equestria though they aren't openly antagonistic to the Two Sisters. Are borders simply not a recognized things for many people? What nations have and respect them? Are certain peoples considered nomadic and have a different set of rules they follow?
That is quite an excellent question. To limit the scope today I'm going to avoid the nations and people of substance and focus on the territory and such.
To start with, I view the political landscape to be roughly pre-nationalist. Ponies don't have an innate sense of belonging and loyalty to a flag. They have a sense of belonging to their kind. Gryphons are similar. We're still in a world of Kingdoms and not Nations.
Borders are loose and ponies have certainly not filled out all the space on their continent. I look at the Over a Barrel episode as an example. Ponies moved into the land of another species and set up shop without asking. There was conflict. Then everyone came to a compromise but, really, the ponies are actually the bad guys in that episode. They just didn't mean to be malicious. Ponies rarely are.
Ponies, zebras, dragons, and other groups more or less come and go as they please. There are large civilization centers but, outside of that, most of the area is pretty rough and free. Especially the further south you go. Where the issue comes in is when those groups don't play nice.
Presumably, in ages past, there was some sort of strife between ponies and dragons. So much so that their rulers felt it was necessary to lay out some clear guidelines. That is where the Treaty of the Three Princesses comes into play. It is an agreement among peoples, not nations/countries/etc. And, I should point out, that the ponies weren't unified. It was an agreement between nox ponies, day ponies, and dragons (who also aren't unified).
In modern times, Princess Celestia has moved towards a more universal representation. A parliamentary system of sorts exists but, at the end of the day, the goddesses that control the sun and moon aren't elected. Most ponies swear their allegiance to them more than to "equestria."
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So much yes. That answer was not expected, lol. I was really hoping he wouldn't say something like "Dense?" or "Wait, am I?" And thank heavens it didn't happen!
~Melly~
And for some reason, I feel he is still a little dense with his answer.