On the matter of canon, and how it applies to the story. · 10:42pm Jun 5th, 2017
I’ve decided, after much consideration, to put down certain elements of the canon that I’ve used to make certain points in the story that have become matters of contention. Please bear with me while I write this stuff down, and I may add more later.
Years Being One Hundred Days Long
In Winter Wrap-Up, Twilight Sparkle says that ponies in Ponyville have doing the wrap-up without magic for hundreds of years. However, Granny Smith was there for the founding of Ponyville, according to Family Appreciation Day. Therefore, Granny Smith may be hundreds of years old. But maybe that’s because ponies age at a rate similar to humans, but they measure their years by a different number of days. In the episode Apple Family Reunion, it is specifically stated that the family reunion is done every one hundred days moons, an undefined amount of time that could easily be just a weird way of saying nights for all we know. Why one hundred moons? On earth, they’d be once a year, at best. So, one hundred moons is a year for the sake of argument. If Granny Smith is, say, only sixty years old by earth measurement, that would make her 21900 days old. By the 100 days make a year calendar, that would make her 219 years old. Two centuries. Thus, Ponyville can be centuries old, and still have been founded by the Apple family. Besides, if Equestria’s seasons are managed, not by nature, but by ponies, running things on a nice round number makes a great deal more sense than things being managed by some arbitrary number like 365.
Trains Having Been Invented More Than 1000 Years Ago
Twilight and friends journeyed by train to the Crystal Empire. The railroad there doesn’t look new. And Celestia wouldn’t have wasted money on a railroad that went nowhere: A railroad would have only been put in at a point in time where it would be used to transport large numbers of people or bulk cargo. Thus, that railroad line would only have been put in at a point when the Crystal Empire was still present, and then maintained for when the Crystal Empire returned. No other explanation for why there was a railroad there at all makes sense.
Blueblood’s Betrayal, And Rainbow Dash Executing A Traitor
In The Cutie Re-Mark, we saw an alternate version of Rainbow Dash and Rarity serving under Nightmare Moon. We saw an alternate version of Fluttershy who was willing to immediately execute Twilight Sparkle and Spike under suspicion of being a changeling. These are things that we would never see the Prime Mane Six do. However, the alternate timeline versions have led very different lives than the originals over the last, what, ten years? At least? And not just the Mane Six: Everyone in Equestria has led very different lives because of the absence of Twilight and co. as heroes. Thus, all ponies acting in a way that deviates from the norm is only to be expected. It would be stranger if they acted exactly like their prime timeline counterparts. Blueblood might have been a jerk and a coward in PrimeTime, but not a traitor. However, Alt Blueblood has had a front row seat to the slow but steady collapse of Equestria, including a nearly successful changeling invasion. If Equestria were doing great, selling out the country would be unthinkable. But at the literal moment of the nation’s collapse? He’s a coward in any and all universes: Why wouldn’t he sell out his homeland to save his skin?
Let me just quote the exact words Granny Smith stated:
Not days, mate. Moons. And as far as any of us are concerned, we don’t know what a moon constitutes as in Equestria. Yes, it could mean days, but that that would be too often, for any of us. Trust me, when you gather with that many ponies (people) that often, it would wear you down more than you would know.
As for me, I believe it means lunar cycles. Or the nearest Equestrian equivalent, seeing as how Luna controls the moon and thus, it’s cycles. For us, it would be approximately 7.7 years for a hundred lunar cycles to pass over 365 days.. For Equestria though, I believe it is quite possibly much shorter, maybe 4-5 years. A possible factor could also be that their calendar is a proper 360 (a circle, as it was).
TL:DR; We don’t know what a moon is as a measure of time. All we have is our headcanons.
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Usually "a moon" does mean one lunar cycle.
According to the wikia a moon in MLP has no human equivalent.
If she knew something was coming back, and that she might need to push plenty of troops (or a princess of love, her husband, and six exceedingly lucky mares) up there without having to slog through days and days of extremely harsh weather.
A point of trade with Yakyakistan, who might not want trains running through their lands, but still need a point for trade and the like.
There, two potential reasons why that railway might have been placed there after the crystal empire disappeared, entirely out of my hat.
Just for people with facts, in our world a moon is about 29 days or the time it takes for the moon to complete a full cycle. aka Lunar calendar.
In Equestria the sun and moon can move on the whim of those with enough power to control them and in the real world the moon reflects the suns light giving it different phases as it orbits earth, in Equestria it dosn’t seem to do so rather it shines with its own light (as seen when the two are in the sky together) so it seems Luna can control the moons (phases) as well. So its really up to the writer to decide what “moons” mean.
I have no problem with these interpretations of Cannon MLP it is your story after all. I say roll with it
Personally I like this. You could have just said “Hey it is an AU story, its how I want the Universe to work” But instead you gave a logical and well thought out deduction that through its reasoning make MORE sense than the canon material. Good show sir!