Kelpies (MttPP headcanon background) · 12:53am Oct 25th, 2021
Note: all images in this post are also links to their Derpibooru pages if you want to research them.
Maybe I should have made this post when I brought Aria's kelpie form into the story, but better late than never, right?
When I brought Aria into Equestria, I decided I wanted to show that she wasn't a siren anymore, so I came up with the kelpie idea. I gave a description of what she looked like, and here's where that description came from.
Ancient kelpies were seen in Mainline comic #24 (thanks to a time traveling Discord) and are what I based my description for Aria on.
Here’s some fun fanart using a similar, but more shark-like, design of what I'm going for with Aria. Just ignore the shark fins and imagine the ears more pony-like.
Two modern kelpies (Melody Brook and Crystal) appear in the season 10 comics in the zebra homeland. The species appears to have become minor elementals (water and ice), but I had already written a backstory based on the ancient design before I saw the season 10 version so I had to make some minor story adjustments to my idea.
In addition to Issue #24 and season 10, another kind of modern day kelpie appeared in issue #23. However, she looks very different from the other examples and is much larger. Either she is some kind of princess/guardian kelpie or is non-canon. As other elements of the issue don't really mesh well with show canon either, I’m just ignoring it.
TLDR: In my headcanon, we have the issue #24 ancient kelpies and the season 10 modern kelpies, and that’s it. I’m basing Aria's description on the ancient kelpies.
So, why kelpies and not the siren form from Rainbow Rocks? Well, I have headcanon for that too, and I hope to detail it in a future story.
Maybe they evolved? Kelpies, I mean.
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Magically, in a way. A line from Aria in yesterday's chapter mentions that kelpies have (entirely in my own headcanon) magic that's tied to where they live. Since kelpies left their old home, future generations would change due to the magic in their new home. Multiply that by—give or take—1,000 years, or about 33 generations…
This post popped into my head the other day while thinking on something about Aria and my mind wandered. It came up with taking this idea a step further with the Dazzlings possibly being Kelpies originally but are corrupted into a Siren state by the gems they have. Destruction of the gems would then revert them to their true forms, on return to Equestria of course.