Well, that was unexpected · 11:41pm Jan 28th, 2016
Color me surprised! Hasbro has given us a Season Six teaser, and apparently Cadence has already had her foal! No doubt the fandom will be abuzz about this, so I'm just getting my two bits in now.
But, but... foals take eleven months to develop! This means season six takes place a full year after we have left off! Which is surprising given that apparently only a couple years of time have passed in the previous five seasons. So we've got a whole missing year's worth of off-camera events! That is, presuming pregnancies in Equestria are not magically a one-month process. After all, raise your hoof if you've seen a visibly pregnant mare in MLP, ever. I mean, I know this is meant to be a kid's show and all, but pregnancy isn't something you have to hide from kids. I was genuinely looking forward to a whole bunch of "pregnant Cadence" shenanigans throughout the course of season six and then maybe getting to see the foal at the very end there. Seriously, we'll all miss out on sweet stuff like this.
Diyoo Wan Thum?
Still... Cuteness abounds!
D'awww
Well, that's not rushed at all.
And now the 'official' timeline is even more borked than it already was - seasons 1-5 take place within two years, and now season six is a full year later? Eh?
I'm sceptical, in case that wasn't already obvious. The show itself is yet to do anything interesting with any of the alicorns bar Twilight - excluding Luna Eclipsed - so having a foal alicorn floating around seems more like an attempt to sell more toys than anything else.
That's not bad, I suppose, as long as it doesn't interfere with the rest of the show.
...why does she look so much like Starlight Glimmer?
Eh, Cadance was pregnant already during Season 5. That's when it was revealed to the audience, but presumably Cadance was with child for several months before the reveal. I don't know how it is with horses, but with humans by the time you're visibly pregnant you're already nearly to term. Natal development is likely shorter due to the Ponies' observed neoteny, so the skip to the birth needn't be as extreme as you suggest.
Those eyes, though, aaah they're too cute!
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A human woman is showing at three months. Delaying the announcement beyond that is pretty risky. Six months to go! And yeah, Cadence was skinny as ever in that episode, so it's safe to assume it was really early. Still, lots of off-camera time which is a definite reversal of the previous seasons compressing time. I guess this goes along with the fact that MLP hasn't exactly been consistent in its time depiction at any point anyway. What, with the Grand Galloping Gala and Hearth's Warming Eve events being tossed in there randomly, plus whole winters lasting exactly one episode. Not to mention the fact that the Cake twins are still infants!! I guess that's just how it goes.
Still, I would have loved to see more pregnant Cadence. Lots of lost potential for dramas there.
And... the eyes!! I'm so glad they aren't solid color like other foals are depicted. I was wondering about that when we saw AJ's birth certificate (in the same episode incidentally). AJ had black pupils.
Also...... look at that horn and those wings!! The wings are already bigger than those of school fillies!
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Sadly, you may be right.
I had the same reaction, Awe! ... Huh, wait? What?!? ... Awe! I think that the episodes are not in chronical order (i.e Winter Wrap-Up and Fall Weather Friends). The one where Pinkie knows could have been earlier in the calendar that the episodes chronological order