Headcanon: On Alicorns · 4:24am Jan 23rd, 2019
Writing up some of my personal thoughts an alicorns. This is only my own and while my own stories will hold to it, you don't have to know it to read and enjoy them.
Alicorns are not Immortal
While alicorns can live longer than most ponies, they are not immortal and age just like normal. The reason why Celestia and Luna are as old as they are is their connection to the sun and moon respectively. Being connected to a celestial body does that to a pony.
This is also why Cadence and Twilight don’t have the flowing hair, it’s a side effect of the connection and a way to burn off the extra magic that they get through their connections. Yes, this means their hair are magical heat sinks.
Though this does raise some interesting questions when it comes to Mistmane as she has the same flowing hair. Yes she is immortal and was probably older then she looked at the time of the Pillars. She has a connection to life itself, and it’s quite possibly only by pure force of will she never became an alicorn.
Ascended alicorns before Cadence and Twilight
We know from the chapter books how Cadence became an alicorn (and while it’s second level canon, it hasn’t been contradicted yet), and we saw Twilight. They weren’t the first though, on average some pony becomes an alicorn every 80-100 years. This means that Celestia didn’t rule alone, and if it hadn’t been so close to Luna’s return Cadence would have been ruling at her side as well.
There have been male alicorns as well, but they are even more rare.
The chapter books also say that Celestia and Luna were born alicorns, something that didn’t happened again until Flurry Heart. Best guess is that it’s an indication that Shining Armor is in line for wings at some point in the future.
It's possible to stop being an alicorn
It’s possible to ‘undo’ becoming an alicorn, but it saps the pony of nearly all their magic and it never comes back. As an upside, it does return your body to how it was when you ascended, so it can be seen as a way to prolong life. It’s happened a few times, usually with someone who doesn’t wish to become an alicorn at all, but there has been one case where a princess retired by going back to how she was after wearing the crown for 80 some odd years. It’s why a certain mare help found Ponyville and is still around a couple centuries later.
How to become an alicorn
It’s a four step process, but is kept hidden for a very good reason.
Step 1: You have to have a certain spark inside of you. About 1/3 of all living creatures have this spark, and it usually results in a more unexpected life (all the major character in the show have this, call it the protagonist gene). This also mean in theory non-ponies could ascend, but it’s never happened before.
Step 2: The spark must be fanned into something greater. For ponies this usually means a full and complete understanding of their cutie mark, of the main six (excluding Twilight), only Rainbow Dash and Applejack are the ones closest to achieving that. Sunset is almost there as well.
Step 3: A massive amount of magic. Doesn’t matter what kind, it could be pure pegasus or earth pony magic, but that’s needed. The problem is that while all this magic is happening…
Step 4: You have to die. This is why it’s a process that has been kept tightly guarded, because there are ponies out there (like Sunset Shimmer before she reformed) who would go too far in the believe they will ascend, but end up just being dead.
The spell that made Twilight an alicorn was a huge cheat (and won’t work for anypony else)
I’ve talked about this before, but the spell that Twilight finished wasn’t meant to make her an alicorn, that happened by very happy accident. Twilight hadn’t finished the second step yet, but the spell effectively bound all six of their destines together through the Elements, effectively artificially passing that step, so when the elements fired on her (and yes, she was vaporized by it), was enough to kick her into the Hall of Ascension and not the gateway to the afterlife.
And because all their destines were pulled together into it, it meant that for a few months afterwards, all the others were one spectacularly death away from becoming a princess.
Every alicorn has a Nightmare
It many ways the Nightmare is the balance to an alicorns power. Usually they start by latching onto one single fear (of being forgotten, or becoming disconnected from others) and is fanned into a Nightmare. And given a long enough time line, the Nightmare always wins, be it for a day or a 1000 years, they will become the nightmare.
So... Do you subscribe to the "Twilight is dead" theory?
I accept all of these, aside from #2
5001187
She got better!
What's your thoughts now that the series is over. Mine is that the ending is basically repeating the beginning with the student going to Ponyville. Jim Miller said they don't know how long everyone lives including Twilight. It looks like she will outlive her friends on the surface. Miller also stated in an interview that Celestia and Luna gave her power over the sun and moon when they fused the crown. For my headcanon fic I made Twilight give up that power, which I say was the source of immortality/longevity... to her student Luster and pass with her friends.
5192226
I felt that something happened in the intervening years that gave Twilight another power boost, which is why she got the wavy mane. I'm kind of thinking that she somehow ended up merging with the tree of harmony, or maybe just the elements themselves. I could see her giving up the power later on, though I do also like to think that somewhere along the line Shining Armor got his own wings.
5192296
Nice. I would like to think that. Though I'm afraid my thoughts are something happened to Cadence and shining armor since Flurry appears to be ruling the Crystal Empire. Good to see someone with a theory similar to my own.