Points of Canon: Friends Forever #28 · 4:47pm May 7th, 2016
A new comic just crossed my horizon. Let’s see what this one has in store…
1. They have their cutie marks, which dates this one.
Cutie Mark Crusaders1 get to spend the night in the Canterlot Castle together with other “future filly leaders of Equestria.” It’s a meticulously planned one-shot event, and apparently, Twilight’s idea. It involves a sleepover. On the floor. In the throne room. Luna even lampshades how silly this is.
2. *groan*
3. “Do you ever worry you might be a character in a book, Rarity?” I think Aporia is leaking.Harriet Pinto in a Zany Unicorn Magical Academy is now an official ponification of Harry Potter.2 Magical Academy is yet another name for the School for Gifted Unicorns, apparently, or at least, what happens afterwards, because Twilight studied there.3
- For some bizarre reason, Celestia is mediating an alliance (?) between yaks and griffons. For an even more bizarre reason, they’re going to war, which means Celestia is out of the plot and leaves Luna in charge of the sleepover. How exactly would the yaks and griffons even be capable of waging war on each other when yaks appear to have had no contact with the rest of the world prior to the reappearance of the Crystal Empire is left unexplained. What’s also interesting is that Luna claims not to have the patience for peace talks.
4. Honestly, it’s not entirely clear from canon if she is or not, but at least we know at least some ponies believe she is.
Scootaloo believes Luna is nocturnal4 and therefore, does not know what to do at a sleepover.
- The plot involves a filly named “Thestra” with a skull and bone for her cutie mark, who is, bizarrely, not a thestral, but a unicorn. With a cutie mark spell of making flesh invisible while leaving the bones visible. Don’t ask.
- Luna says “Parts of the castle are dangerous and full of dark magics at night.” Which is then confirmed by the appearance of a “creature of chaos magic,” which are apparently a thing now, called “mirrorca” – a flying light and magic-reflective orca. Why this doesn’t work on Thestra’s spell is an open question.
Not a particularly rich issue, but the two globally-relevant notions it introduces are kind of important:
- Chaos magic is a thing, it can occur naturally. Discord has no monopoly on chaos magic, which makes me wonder what else this branch of magic might be capable of and whether any actual research and practitioners exist.
- Either yaks and griffons do have a common border somewhere or griffons actually are capable of projecting power bypassing Equestrian territory, otherwise there would be no possibility of a war or any need to broker between them diplomatically.
What a delightful piece of nonsense, otherwise.
I don't read the comics, so I don't know the context, but it doesn't sound silly to me. As a Girl Scout in the 1990s, our local troops (Juniors, I think, so that would be ages 9-12) participated in a sleepover at the Baltimore Science Center where we slept on the floor among the exhibits. It's fun to be someplace after hours among tons of other girls, and sleeping on the floor is just a part of a sleepover.
I have yet to read this issue. I am a bit behind in the comics lately. I recall seeing Harry Potter and gang back in Celestia's School in a previous issue. One of the things that make the comics worth reading is finding all the references in the background. Also I believe in the comics Luna is pretty much nocturnal.
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It does sound silly to Luna, though. "That's disgusting. Do you know how many ponies trot through there?" is literally her reaction. Having never had an activity such as a sleepover sanctioned by parents or other educatory figures myself, I can't really tell if there's precedent for it. :)
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We usually assume that she is (it makes sense!) but I don't think it's ever been conclusively settled, and, in comics, there are multiple cases of her being active during the day -- for example, in "Reflections" storyline she poses as Celestia for a week, and in "Zen and the art of gazebo repair" storyline she participates in the Summer Wrap-up Festival in daytime. Her mini-series issue assumes she is primarily nocturnal and even says she chases monsters around at night with her guard, but it also has a grating amount of inconsistencies with everything else, even though I like it.
I say it's not very conclusive, especially considering Do Princesses dream of Magic Sheep...
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I guess Luna's not a big fan of camping then, either. "Are you aware of what bears do in the woods?"
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See my prior canon research post on Luna, secondary canon implies she has no problems with camping, but might have a problem with other ponies... :)
3927677 I've read a couple fanfics, and you could interpret the comics in the same way to a point. Where alicorns dont need sleep or can go for long periods without it. In the reflections arc Luna was suffering from long term lack of sleep. However she was able to keep going for a rather long time with no ill effects, so perhaps alicorns can go for longer without sleep. Which would help to explain how she can be active day and night with no apparent issues.
Luna's dream walking has to me come across in one of several ways in relation to fanfics/show/comics. In she either needs to be asleep or in a meditative state to do it. Or its some form of magic which projects her into the dream realm. Whether physical or mentally is up to interpretation.
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That would work, sort of, but wouldn't explain why Celestia needed to pack a suitcase to deal with it.
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No, that's par for the course. She literally packed a suitcase and flew away. :) If the incident were confined to two delegations, it would most likely have occurred in Canterlot, because landlocked Yakyakistan and all that...
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Actually, this is a point I wouldn't mind seeing get brought up in Aporia. Luna's Dreamwalking is a great means for communication, but also gives a practical reason for how she and Celestia are NOT Goddesses, or are, at most, Limited-Power Goddesses. If she was omnipotent, omnipresent, or omniscient, then she would be able to command ponies to not be afraid, amongst other things. Along the same lines, she'd be able to see every thought in your mind, rather than only the dream you are having our what information you let her see (this has been used in quite a few fanfics).
But, as I've never read the comics, I'm not sure if the question would even be brought up, unless it was used as a hypothetical.
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There's a long ladder towards true godhood, and Rika even has a lecture somewhere about godhood, that starts with "being bigger than you does not make one a god" and ends with explaining how to be one you at least need a hypercomputer to start with... But yes, dreamwalking establishes some pretty stringent power and knowledge limits.
I'm surprised you didn't mention the other big revelation of this comic. The existence of a griffon ambassador and the fact that the griffons in general are able to go to war at all implies that Griffonstone does have a government, even if they don't have a king. Until I read that line, I assumed that the griffons lived in anarchy.
This supports my headcanon in all the right ways. Forsaken Crags confirmed.
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After the more authoritative episode The Fault In Our Cutie Marks I think it’s pretty certain they have a regency council. Of griffons. Who all hate each other, obviously, so nothing ever gets done. :)
Could be useful…except I think we see in primary canon that X-ray methods exist, magically or otherwise, so it's not uniquely useful, just makes, say, setting a bone properly easier. Or finding flaws that otherwise might not be visible …without the radiation problems…okay, probably useful enough that she would no-doubt be full-time employable with just that spell.