Jun
15th
2016
Points of Canon: Princess Cadance and the Spring Hearts Garden · 3:28pm Jun 15th, 2016
I’m going to extend the practice of canon statement combing to chapter books as well. Mostly because I can. I generally ignore them, because they are usually even less in tune with the primary canon than comics – I only have that much glue to hold it together. The Journal is kind of an exception because of how important it is.
But maybe, just maybe, at least some of them can be exploited for more dramatic opportunities…
- The book literally starts with the first canonical use of the term “heartsong” that I can remember, which fandom has been using to describe spontaneous musical numbers on occasion. In this context, it is a ceremony conducted annually on the Hearts and Hooves day in the Crystal Empire, a subspecies of concert meant to do the same thing they always do, boost the charge of the Crystal Heart. The ceremony involves incessant amateur singing.
- The reason the heartsong ceremony is not as successful as Cadance hopes is an outbreak of “pony sniffles.”(1)
- The book explicitly dates itself to the nearest spring after Flurry Heart was born and shattered the Crystal Heart, which sets the position of the Hearts and Hooves day to spring(2) and also, dates Flurry Heart’s birthday to autumn/winter.
- Crystal Empire has a Crystal Sym-pony Orchestra.
- Cadance explicitly says she doesn’t like to be called by her full “Mi Amore.”
- Winter is Shining Armor’s least favorite season.
- Apparently, the shield does not offer a perfect protection from cold, as the Empire is chilly even underneath it.
- Lilac Quartz, one of the crystal ponies, says, “I haven’t seen such a small turnout since I was a filly during the year that almost everypony traveled to the big Hearts and Hooves event in Canterlot.” Which has to have happened around a thousand years ago and dates the Hearts and Hooves holiday back to that period.
- Lilac Quartz runs the Crystal Crown Cafe.
- Cadance reminiscences about seeing Lilac Quartz’s daugher, one Olivine Jewel, as a “little filly” upon first visiting the Crystal Empire. By other data, this could not have occurred more than two years ago, and Flurry Heart is still a “baby,” doesn’t talk, and shattered the Heart “recently” – even if she is “old enough to stay with the castle foalsitter.” And yet, Olivine Jewel is currently a “teenager,” even if she is without a cutie mark. Either this is a contradiction, or “teenager” is used very, very early for Olivine Jewel. …Dammit, get your time straight, people.
- Cadance gets a vision “of the future” and mentions that it has been years since she last had one. Shining Armor had observed her have a vision previously and recognized the symptoms. Narration reports that Cadance had these since she was a pegasus filly.
- Cadance says “Even if King Sombra never returns, we still must look to the Crystal Heart to protect us.” which sets this as either occurring before the Siege of the Crystal Empire or entirely incompatible with it.
- Shining Armor still runs the Royal Guard somehow.
- In her earlier years, Cadance used to give castle tours to school groups, which would include the school children cooking the meal for the class in the castle kitchen. Which kinda strikes me as a bit odd.
- The book mentions an unicorn named Gemma. Which would be a very rare crystal pony unicorn, wouldn’t it.
- Cadance sets out to restore a dilapidated garden, and Olivine states that she remembers how it looked “before King Sombra.”
- Crystal ponies are aware of the existence of zebras, mention “bat-ponies” like they’re real – a very nebulous semi-existence, that – and have actually read books about Daring Do.
- A particular species of flowers named “Funflowers” can produce an uncontrollable, multi-hour laughter. Other obviously named psychoactive flowers are also involved, namely, “Lazylily,” “Daffospills,” “Reflection Roses,” etc.
- Shining Armor’s training procedures for royal guards consist of a “drill-off,” in which they practice marching until everypony makes a mistake and is “out,” leaving one winner. How is that supposed to “prepare them for anything and everything” as the narrator surmises I can’t even guess.
- A book named “The Chaotic Age of Equestria” supposedly mentions Discord and has pictures of him.
- Equestrian Botanical Society existed before Sombra, and published a journal named “Flora and Foalna.”
- Cadance cites Luna reciting an “old sorcery adage” about the magical efficacy of singing: “When the spell is strong and has been far prolonged, a familiar song may right the wrong.” What follows is a deliberate use of an incited musical number to reverse the psychoactive effects of the flowers.
- Olivine, who was behind the planting of those particular flowers, expects her punishment to be a ban, rather than banishment or something else: “I understand if you want to ban me from the Crystal Empire–”(3)
Overall, I’m not sure I can incorporate this, it’s basically an under-researched fanfic. Although it does carry some interesting ideas.
(1) I expect, there’s also pony pox, pony tuberculosis and maybe even pony ebola.
</sarcasm>
(2) And not February as most people seem to believe. Hearts and Hooves Day has no trace of snow anywhere in it, and thus has to happen after the Winter Wrap-Up for this season, anyway…
(3) Which makes me think of the whole thing as independent servers of an MMO for some reason…
There are definitely some intriguing ideas in there. Even if they're things mentioned in passing in a story, they could help add depth.
The disease is clearly called ponebola.
But yeah, this one has one of the worst cases of loose chronology I've seen yet in official pony stuff. Still, there are definitely some bits worth salvaging in there.
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It is probably accompanied by poneczema then... :)
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They appear to make ponies stare at their own reflections, so, not very useful.
Cadance had precog abilities since she was a Pegasus? Man that is weird. Does that come from her somehow being destined to become an alicorn? I do like the ability that ponies are semi-aware of the existence of heartsongs and have managed to harvest them.
If Shining Armor is still somehow the head of the Royal Guard (which is a terrible idea), than hopefully the Royal Guard is subordinate to the larger EUP (I always figured it was an evolved form of the Unicorn portion), so the supreme military leader is not so far from the capital. Also that means it's extremely likely the "Crystal Guard" or whatever are now a subset of the Royal Guard.
Thanks for plumbing the depths and delivering us canon-optional treasures, Oliver!
No idea, the book does not say - just like it plays a little with the idea that the Guard switches to some kind of heightened preparedness regimen, and then quietly forgets about it.
Call them shards. You know you want to.
Unfortunately, the Cutie Re-mark time shenanigans gives a perfect opportunity to…Re-Mark is prior to Crystalling, don't mind me.…teens as 4-8 thanks to base-4 hoof-counting could throw you? …nah, far-fetched.
Somehow missed this blog. Wonder how that happened.
This pleases me. It fits very well with my own writing.
I seem to recall Flurry Heart not being a thing in Siege? So this is annoying.
How exactly does the book specify this? Does it actually call him a captain at any point? Worse, does it actually specify he still runs the Royal Guard in Canterlot?
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Right, entirely incompatible then…
It did specify he takes orders from Celestia, and that there are orders which are “eyes only” for him and not for Cadance. It also calls him “Commander” for some reason.
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