4625786
Snow reason.

I'm sorry.

Apple trees require winter to produce fruits. They can be cultivated at equatorial latitudes only at very high altitudes.

4625786 For fun? Snow can be fun. Also having a permanent temperate climate could get boring.

4625800 Shame on you for using that pun.

4625786
They just want another goddamn excuse to sing a song.

4625786
Winter is generally a resting period, used as a time to decay the materials during Fall into nutrients in the soil for Spring. It's a recovery period.

4625786
The pegasi can't just stuff all those clouds coming from the north in the closet, so they have to unload them from time to time.

4625786
Because ponies in scarves:

4625786 Winter helps Animals rest and hibernate and gives the plants time to rest for a season
That's my reason at least

4625786
Because this thing you said:

Another thing I noticed is that Equestria's wildlife clearly has adaptions meant to deal with changes in climate like how some animals hibernate, this along with how 'untamed' the north seems makes me conclude that their world had once been self running but they took it over.

Life in that part of the world is used to having certain cycles. You meddle in those cycles at your peril. Things will not adapt quickly if you make massive changes.

4625786 It's a devious conspiracy with a sole purpose of making Rainbow Dash sad. All of Equestria is in on it.

"Quick, Rainbow Dash, wear this!"

4625786
If they don't do it for specific meteorological reasons, then it could be partially ritualistic/traditional/routine, in that 'it happens because it's the way things have been happening'.

4625905
Best pony blends in disappointingly in winter instead of standing out sharply, as in the rest of the seasons.

4625786

According to Snowdrop it's to 'give the land time to rest'. I mean, a blind little filly wouldn't lie to you, would she?

4625909
Waaah? Why would Dark blue, blue, really really dark blue and slightest tinge of purple blue blend into white, white, eye-blinding white. Did I mention white?

Lumie, I am disapproint, unless you're colourblind or worse, blind, then I am sowee for any offense.

4625917
The only disability I suffer from is the crushing burden of good taste.

Because Celestia must have a reason to justify her lack of a love life.

4625920
Ooh, good taste. Mind if I lick you to see if you really do taste good?

4625909

Wait. Are you saying Rarity or Celestia is best pony now? Last time it was Fluttershy.

4625932

Are you saying Rarity or Celestia is best pony now?

Yes.

Last time it was Fluttershy.

Yes.

4625926

Ooh, good taste. Mind if I lick you to see if you really do taste good?

No.

4625786 This goes with my theory that Equestria is a rogue planet ejected from it's solar system thousands of years ago. Back when it had natural seasons and normal tides. The animals evolved with seasons and migrations. But then the unicorns gathered together and in order to save all life on the planet, created magical constructs to replace the sun and moon with almost no weight of their own (thus they could be moved easily). Since the sun isn't a normal star, it cannot maintain normal seasons. It had to be done artificially. Only a place like the Everfree Forest which rests one on of Equestria's magical poles can still have normal weather, and I don't even know if there's winter there.

4625934
This would make for a cool story.
Kinda like Space 1999.

4625934
See, I want to say this is a good explanation, but space doesn't work like that. If the artificial star can provide enough heat for their world, then they could easily control the climate by simply adjusting the orbit of that 'sun'. If it's not providing enough heat, well, I have no idea what's going on, because they'd basically be screwed unless they cranked up the greenhouse effect, which makes more problems. Although it would go a ways just to show how screwed up their world is. I wonder if, in that case, winter could be used as a way to cool down excess heat (probably not).

But something tells me planets don't work like that (and I don't feel like looking stuff up because I've done enough of that lately). Especially considering they've been doing this for longer than a millennium. That's enough time for things to get screwy.

Personally, it would be much easier to say that they don't like the natural meteorological aspects of the region they live in, so they choose to manage it themselves.

4625944
Because that's how things actually work with 'heat source there, planet here'. More tilted away from the sun means farther away means colder.

4625786 Bruh.

Socks.

4625933
But waaai?

Wait. What!?

Are you saying Rarity or Celestia is best pony now?

Yes.

BLASPHEMY

4625786 The way I saw it was that in the far flung past maybe just as ponies became self aware, that something happened the planet they are on maybe the earth, the ponies bound to it called earth ponies seem to make this more credible.(not to mention all the tech that couldn't have been designed for ponies.) so something happened something cataclysmic that wiped us humans out or even that the ponies were our descendants (through scientific meddling), or ponies and other animals eventually evolved into sapient beings after thousands or perhaps millenia, eventually they noticed that the sun had stopped moving or more likely the planet had but being a primitive sapient species and not understanding the sun got together to fix the sun and moon and like our ancestors thought that the sun and moon rotated around equus equis earth so they forced the sun to rotate around the planet along with the moon with their magic, eventually they noticed that the seasons weren't right. (and anyone who knows how the seasons come to be would know why) they weren't happening so the ponies took things into their own hooves fixing it by directly controlling the weather. they didn't know that the seasons happen based on the location of earth in relation to the sun and because the sun was no longer orbited on an ellipse and thus the planet didn't warm or cool based on proximity to the sun the seasons ceasing to exist causing untold damage to the environment and the ecosystem.

4625983 Well our sun is 8 light minutes away from us (which is a whole mess of miles). By the time the light gets here, it's all basically travelling in the same direction. Therefore, you can adjust temperatures by tilting the planet. Some areas will get hotter than others because light is hitting it directly while others heat less when light hits less directly. But what happens when you move the sun into the same orbit as the moon? Now light is hitting the world at all kinds of crazy angles and now tilting the world will no longer produce normal heating. You can't have normal seasons any more. In fact, you can't even have normal weather patterns any more.

You can also tell that the sun doesn't radiate normal light, but instead radiates "daylight" as the moon radiates "night". It's clear in the few instances when the sun and moon occupy the sky at the same time. It adds to my contention that the sun is a magical construct and not even a dwarf star.

4625786 Because how else will pony Santa know when it's time to throw coal down ponies chimneys?

Keep a calendar? Don't be ridiculous. Snow is the only way.

4626074
I think we should just agree that trying to place their world (without any concessions to the super-weird stuff concerning daylight/nighttime) in an environment that makes it somewhat feasibly realistic in a physics sense means that their world is massively fucked up.

4626088 E-yup.

4625786

So all those weather pegasi have jobs. Otherwise the unemployment rate would be high and the monarchy can't have that.

4626115
Eh, there's always wars to use up the unemployed. The Pegasi like fighting, right?

4626124
I almost want to write a story based on this thought.

4626137
It shouldn't be hard; it wouldn't even have to be fiction.

4626124

I figured that was why there's so many more mares that we see than stallions. The stallions are all out to war.

4625786 For a poetic reason...

Everything soon must die and come to an end, only to reborn again.

It could be symbolic considering they actually make it happen.

Or you have the same scientific reason our planet has winter and, considering how their planet works, they have to ensure nature operates as it should.

4625786

I just wanted to point out that there were a coupleof episodes that I think would have been better if it was still Winter, those being Griffonstone and the Yak episode. Winter would have felt natural during those episodes. I guess the animators didn't want to redo the backgrounds.

4626493 Actually, there's no real need for winter as far as animals and plants go. The only real benefit to winter is having snowpacks build up in the mountains so that lakes and rivers don't dry out for the rest of the year. I suppose that keeping the water supply up benefits the plants and animals, but it's hard to say if that won't happen if there's sufficient rainfall the rest of the year.

4626949 But there is also the need to maintain the temperature of the planet. Winter months bring cooler temperatures and keeps the temperature down. If it was summer all year long, I could imagine the planet getting far warmer that what life could take. And a period of rest for the ground is good instead of planting and harvesting constantly. Let the ground restore itself through a few months. Look at what happened in the United States during the 1920s during the Dust Bowl. The ground was overworked and the topsoil was unusable, leading to the wind kicking up dust and creating dust storms. Imagine if there was no period to force us to quit farming or reduce farming.

I'm sure an agriculturalist, meteorologist, or someone else more knowledgeable than me could say better why winter is needed.

4625786

Why does anything exist? 'Cause Earth.

4625786
Another potential reason is to kill pests. Many small pest species don't do well in the winter, and having three months of freezing temperatures could kill them or at least keep their numbers manageable.

Another possible reason is that it is impossible for them not to have winter, and the ponies simply manipulate things for their own benefits - uncontrolled winters are more dangerous, while their tame winters are not.

4627148 Well, the winds really distribute heat across the world, and as long as you have forever cold caps, you don't really need winter anywhere else. I'm not sure where I heard it, but I've heard that the Crystal Mountains of the north are always locked in snow and ice, thus a perpetual state of winter. Kind of like the North Pole/Antarctica. While the cold draws some warm air up to it from the excess heat of the equator, much of the wind is actually generated by the way the world turns. That's why the strongest winds move around the world rather than from the equator to the poles.

The problem is life will move to any niche available and adapt so it can stay there. It will move to the bottom of the ocean or the deepest darkest caves. They will live on high mountains and places where winter almost never retreats. Hibernation is simply a response to dealing with excess cold and lack of food. There's plenty of animals who don't hibernate at all and still survive like bison, moose and penguins.

As to the crops, the equatorial regions also grow quite well without winter. As long as sensible crop rotation is maintained, there's no issue of soil depletion. Natural rainforests and other equatorial regions pretty much do this automatically, but farmers have to do this by need. The fact that birds migrate south in Equestria proves that there are regions that do not have winter. Yet there's no indication of bad growing seasons down there.

4625786

Obviously. the story of the Founding wouldn't make sense without winter. Nopony would know what snow was.

Another thing I noticed is that Equestria's wildlife clearly has adaptions meant to deal with changes in climate like how some animals hibernate, this along with how 'untamed' the north seems makes me conclude that their world had once been self running but they took it over.

Well, we know that the clouds move by themselves over the Everfree, so that's not too unlikely. Note that this is considered very unnatural, though.

Alternatively, something else managed the seasons before the ponies.

4627148

Look at what happened in the United States during the 1920s during the Dust Bowl

1930's actually, not the 20's. It happened during the Great Depression.

4627353 Winter and seasons in general are a result of planetary orbit and rotation on an axis. Such would not occur without this axis. So to take away the axis rotation would mean many environments would vanish. I can't say that life would not exist but life on the planet is adapted for it. But regardless, the changing seasons are a byproduct of the axis rotation which is needed to maintain the environments we have.

The fact that birds migrate south in Equestria proves that there are regions that do not have winter.

Winter exists in the whole world. In fact the reason bird migrate south is because of the axis rotation. When the northern hemisphere experiences winter, the southern is in summer and vice versa. That is the reason for migration to go to the summer areas or the areas that are perpetually warm like the Equator. The Equator still has seasons but not to the extent of the rest of the world because it receives a constant stream of heat from the sun.

4627485 My mistake. I knew it was the Depression, just made the mistake of when it was.

4627513 The Great Depression happened in 1929-1945.

4627513 As I said before, the tilt of the Earth matters because the sun is 8 light minutes away. When the light arrives at Earth, it's all but travelling in parallel lines. Therefore, the tilt of the planet changes the latitude band receiving the most heat from the sun's light.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MIpa-3VKFSo/UP7vkkx4GMI/AAAAAAAABCw/gUy6xzW5Py4/s1600/seasons_4.gif
If the sun is in fact a magical construct that shares the orbit with the moon, then the light comes in from many angles like the light bulb in the Easy Bake Oven, so it no longer heats one area more than another. The tilt of the planet becomes irrelevant and natural seasons become impossible. But since life evolved under natural seasons, the ponies decided to keep the seasons by artificial means. This includes things like winter weather. On the good side, I don't think Equestria suffers from hurricanes.

4627513

Winter and seasons in general are a result of planetary orbit and rotation on an axis. Such would not occur without this axis. So to take away the axis rotation would mean many environments would vanish. I can't say that life would not exist but life on the planet is adapted for it. But regardless, the changing seasons are a byproduct of the axis rotation which is needed to maintain the environments we have.

You are talking about a fantasy world where the sun, moon and stars are moved manually.

4627816

If the sun is in fact a magical construct that shares the orbit with the moon, then the light comes in from many angles like the light bulb in the Easy Bake Oven, so it no longer heats one area more than another.

The more the Sun (or any punctiform source of light/heat) is near to the Earth, the more it heats an area (the area directly beneath it) more than the others. Being Equestria's "Sun" like an artificial satellite is a season-amplifier.
To have seasons similar to that of our Earth is sufficient that the "Sun" orbit is inclined in respect to the planet axis (like the orbit of the Moon is inclined in respect of the equatorial plane of the Earth of 28.54°) and that it has a precession cycle of the duration of one year (The Moon has a precession cycle of 8.85 years).
Assuming planet Equus have the same mass of the Earth. Assuming that originally (when it was still orbiting around a real star) it had a day of 24 hours. And assuning that, leaving its star's orbit, it had mantained its spin (cause a force able to consistently alter its rotation speed would have extinguished all the life on the planet). To have a 24h day without external interventions (Celestia), the new "Sun" must have an orbit radius of 26,627 km (12h orbit in the same direction of the 24h rotation of the planet. The "Sun" resumes its position in respect to the surface every 24 hours), and must rise and set in inverted directions in respect to where it originally did (the opposite is impossible, since it requires not an orbit, but a fixed point in the space).

4628149 Well, that is assuming that the magical sun has appreciable mass enough that it can even be affected by gravity from the planet. But I don't believe either the sun nor the moon have enough mass to affect the planet's tides. In which case, their orbits are pretty much maintained by the will of the unicorns/alicorns that control it alone. There does seem to be some set boundary that the sun and moon have so that they don't just fly away if control over them breaks for a while. I imagine it took a group of unicorns to control initially because they lacked the power to do so alone and not because of the massive weight of such a thing. My headcanon is that the sun and moon are programmed to be move properly as long as the entity controlling them has a link established to them so they don't go crazy when their controller sleeps, but if they're taken out of the picture by more nefarious means like perverted black vines or banishment to tartarus, they stop responding to control until somepony else takes control of them. Well technically when the alicorns turned their collective power over to Twilight in the case of the latter.
But you can tell that the unicorns that created the magical sun and moon were not astrophysicists because they surely didn't seem to understand the basics of planetary interactions at all. For example, night happens because when the part of the Earth you stand on turns away from the sun, you can see the night sky because the sunlight isn't overriding the starlight and the light reflected from the moon. Yet in Equestria, the moon "radiates" night as clearly shown by when it occupies the sky at the same time as the sun, and that the force of night is equal to the daylight "radiated" by the sun. That alone should tell you that things in Equestria are really out of whack.

It seems I have strayed pretty far from the question of winter in Equestria. Sorry about that.