My Little Pony XLIIV: Season II Ruined My Fanon!

[Mewtarthio]

To be fair, "princess" seems to just be the in-universe term for "alicorn". Even the exchange "You're a princess! I'm just a regular old unicorn." implies that the word is used as a race identifier rather than just a title.

What's the context of that exchange, again? I'll have to take another look at it, and I don't have an hour to spare rewatching the finale.

Anyway, I'd say that Prince Blueblood would be proof that not all princes and princesses are alicorns. My headcanon is that "Prince(ss)" is simply the highest noble title in Equestria. Being an alicorn is simply a rare genetic anomaly (or possibly a form of chimerism, where a pegasus and unicorn zygote fuse together in the womb). Due to their association with Celestia, alicorns are treated as sacred, and they often are allowed to bypass the usual "rules" and gain a noble title, but it's by no means a strict "alicorn = princess" association.

I did link the story but it was on page 49 of the last thread where I'm sure no one saw it. It's a fun, silly story.

Yes, yes it is.

[Kindablue]

But virtue needn't be defined by sacrifice.

If kindness is a virtue, and kindness is freely given with no cost to the giver, does it cease being virtuous?

Yes, but kindness can be given with cost to oneself. Maybe it's a virtue on account of promising sacrifice.

Yes, you could say kindness is a virtue because it does have a cost to its giver--they've giving up an easier, more carefree life in which they don't have to mind others, but I was sort of playing devil's advocate. The statement "most people see virtues as sacrifices" is culturally relative. You can decide what the virtues are, but in the end that's all it is, relativism. Though I'll admit that you can find a moral common ground with enough debate and free speech, some attitudes and virtues are mutually exclusive and can't be consolidated like that. A better way of doing it, I think, is by determining the end results of actions and deciding which actions lead to better outcomes. Murder is bad not because it shows in its actor cowardice, rashness, and the inability to solve problems nonviolently, but because most people don't want to die, and murderers have a habit of killing people. You have to go back to the open debate and free speech, but this time find what people want to happen, not what they want to be; you'll find that most people want the same basic things out of life, and that there are a lot of ways for them to get that. I never traced this conversation to its root, so I don't know how much of a tangent this is from that, but it's certainly still related to ponies somehow, right?

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So basically it was Man's Health with less pictures and nutrition tips??

[Sean Mirrsen]

What's the context of that exchange, again? I'll have to take another look at it, and I don't have an hour to spare rewatching the finale.

Twilight says it to Cadance when they're playing together, in the flashback where Cadance is introduced.

Anyway, I'd say that Prince Blueblood would be proof that not all princes and princesses are alicorns. My headcanon is that "Prince(ss)" is simply the highest noble title in Equestria. Being an alicorn is simply a rare genetic anomaly (or possibly a form of chimerism, where a pegasus and unicorn zygote fuse together in the womb). Due to their association with Celestia, alicorns are treated as sacred, and they often are allowed to bypass the usual "rules" and gain a noble title, but it's by no means a strict "alicorn = princess" association.

Well, so far there is no term, used in-universe or by Word of God, for "alicorn", which is strictly a fan term (and actually used to mean something else entirely, even if related). So far the only term is "pony princess". My personal theory is that alicorns were historically royalty, being more powerful than everyone else, and thus any female alicorn would immediately be made a "princess". In time, whatever word used to be used as the race identifier for the princesses was simply forgotten, and "princess" became both a title and a race name. All alicorns were princesses, and all princesses were alicorns.

Also, this seems to imply that "prince" is just a title, as having it be both for both genders would be too confusing. Perhaps male alicorns do not exist?

[Welf]

Her parents hired a princess as a babysitter. A princess. That's like the Mister Burns tier of stupidly rich.

Or Cadence's family is impoverished nobility/royalty and they need the money.

[Beacon of Chaos]

Ultimate image dump time!

Since this dump will contain a ridiculous number of images (over 60), I'm going to break it up it into seperate posts (are there any forum rules about how many pictures you can post in one go?)

Chrysalis gets to go first (13 images):

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Chrysie in a wedding dress HNNNNNNNG!








LAWLZ



Hrk!

And then some princesses! (6 images):

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Celestia and Luna in glasses HNNNNNG!

Plus this, which is linked not only because it's a huge pic, but because it's kinda saucy :o

[Mewtarthio]

Twilight says it to Cadance when they're playing together, in the flashback where Cadance is introduced.

Thanks. *rewatches*

Alright, from the context, Twilight and Cadence are talking about how lucky they are to know each other. "Regular old unicorn" does contrast with "princess," but it could just as easily mean "unicorn without a noble title" (or at least "unicorn with a noble title that isn't as impressive as 'princess'"; filly Twilight's definition of "regular" is probably a bit skewed). She's clearly impressed that someone of Cadence's status would stoop to her level.

Well, so far there is no term, used in-universe or by Word of God, for "alicorn", which is strictly a fan term (and actually used to mean something else entirely, even if related).

Well, then we need to invent such a term. I'd also argue that Word of God didn't intend for "pony princess" to mean "winged unicorn," seeing as Faust claims Cadence was originally designed as a unicorn. Now, it's possible she was switched to her new design because some Hasbro executive declared that all pony princesses were winged unicorns, but that's pure speculation for now.

My personal theory is that alicorns were historically royalty, being more powerful than everyone else, and thus any female alicorn would immediately be made a "princess".

Now, this I agree with. Particularly in Equestria, where Celestia is revered and Luna is feared, alicorns have some pretty strong associations. I'd honestly be surprised if we ever see an alicorn that's not extremely high-status.

Heck, maybe that's why Cadence is so willing to downplay her title. She was actually born to a commoner family, but was made a princess simply because she had both wings and a horn.

EDIT:

Or Cadence's family is impoverished nobility/royalty and they need the money.

We'll combine the two. Normally, an alicorn commoner would be "adopted" by an existing noble family. Cadence, however, was born to a remote commoner family, and was not discovered until she was in her teenage years. By that point, she was willful enough to rebuff the nobility, who could not countermand her orders, as she technically outranked them. Cadence thus effectively founded her own noble house by virtue of being a winged unicorn. Unfortunately, House Cadence has no money beyond what Cadence manages to earn for herself (or borrow from other noble houses), and I can't imagine she has much experience managing finances...

Her True Love for Shining Armor is really quite fortuitous. House Sparkle gets a massive boost in status, while Cadence gets some much-needed funds. How very, very lucky...

[Emperordaniel]

During the pre-Equestria years (and possibly during the early days of the nation as well, leading up until Discord took over), "King" was an accepted title that was apparently superior to "Prince/Princess", as is shown by Princess Platinum being introduced as the "daughter of the Unicorn-King" during the conference scene in Hearth's Warming Eve.

(My headcanon concerning him and the fact that he never appeared is that he had gotten sick or something due to the unusually-long-and-cold winter, which meant that he had his daughter sent to the meeting of the Three Tribes in his place. Perhaps he would have been shown if the episode was longer.)

[Kd7sov]

Well, then we need to invent such a term. I'd also argue that Word of God didn't intend for "pony princess" to mean "winged unicorn," seeing as Faust claims Cadence was originally designed as a unicorn. Now, it's possible she was switched to her new design because some Hasbro executive declared that all pony princesses were winged unicorns, but that's pure speculation for now.

On the other hand, if Faust has said anything about whether Cadence was originally supposed to be a princess at all, it's escaped my notice.

Incidentally, one of these days I'm going to post pony-crossover pics with, I dunno, Golden Sun or Bridge of D'Arnath or Manta's Gift or something. Just as retribution for all these crossovers with things I've never heard of that keep going unlabeled and unexplained.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Her True Love for Shining Armor is really quite fortuitous. House Sparkle gets a massive boost in status, while Cadence gets some much-needed funds. How very, very lucky...

Lucky indeed. It's almost as if some very generous higher power decided to have a hoof in the fates of House Sparkle and La Casa Cadenza. Someone very powerful and influential, and with a knack for subtle long-term plans. Now who could that be...

[Beacon of Chaos]

Image dump the second. I think I can get away with these. I'll leave the rest for the next page.

Next, crazy crossovers! (just 2 images, plus one linked below):

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Linked for large size.

Random comics (3 images):

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Discord is starting to grow on me, thanks to this tumblr (9 images):

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[Deadly]

Reviewers Wanted
First draft of another little story, in need of critical eyes... this one is really silly, but it's been begging me to be written for AGES. Probably one of my oldest story ideas and now it's finally almost done. Such a relief.

Read it and tell me what you think, please.

[Random][Shipping]
The mere thought of Pinkie Pie having a day where nothing happens threw wide the Pancelestial Passages to Pinksanity and produced this tall tale of culinary adventures and true love instead! -- In other words, Pinkie Pie invites Fluttershy over for pasta and wheatballs. Grab a fork and join in, the sauce is about to get real!

Pinkie Prefers her Pasta Plain... and Phluttershy her Ponies a Pretty Pink

[otakuryoga]

why does everyone say winged unicorn?
why not horned pegasus?
because it would be too easy to write horny pegasus? 8p

[PhantomFox]

Top 3 Nominations for Funnies Moment

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Must be Crackle's cousin...
Oh Come ON!
Pinkie - Weapon of Mass Annoyance

Top 3 Nominations for Best Twilight Moment

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Twilight & Future Twilight
This is MY BOOK! And I'm gonna READ IT!!
I'm going to do what I do best; Lecture her!

Looks like nominations are finished for that category. So let's move onto another one...

Season 2 Pony Awards!
Most Dramatic Moment

Note: This is dramatic in the literary sense, not who hammed it up the best.

[CoffeeIncluded]

That is... one of the most profound things I've ever heard.

That actually makes me re-examine myself as an older brother better...

I know. As I was watching, I was thinking, "Rarity's right! Stop bothering her and let her work in peace, Sweetie Belle! I mean, honestly! Ugh! This is just like my brother; why can't he leave me alone for once?!"

And then as the episode went on, I began to think, "...When he's not raging, he really wants to spend more time with me..."

[Alabenson]

Top 3 Nominations for Funnies Moment

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Must be Crackle's cousin...
Oh Come ON!
Pinkie - Weapon of Mass Annoyance

Top 3 Nominations for Best Twilight Moment

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Twilight & Future Twilight
This is MY BOOK! And I'm gonna READ IT!!
I'm going to do what I do best; Lecture her!

Looks like nominations are finished for that category. So let's move onto another one...

Season 2 Pony Awards!
Most Dramatic Moment

Note: This is dramatic in the literary sense, not who hammed it up the best.

My nominations are;
HOLY **** 'CADENCE' IS EVIL!
and
Spike's confession

[Soras Teva Gee]

Season 2 Pony Awards!
Most Dramatic Moment

Note: This is dramatic in the literary sense, not who hammed it up the best.

Big Mac's Epic Speech

[Maxtronaut]

Which reminds me, someone needs to do a MLP/Dune cross over. It would please me greatly. >_<

No, I don't know why that picture made me think of that, but imagine the awesomeness!

EDIT:
I love this fan community. So much.

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Mother of Faust...

If someone doesn't start on that immediately, then I will.

[Maxtronaut]

TOPIC

We all know the Wonderbolts are the greatest pegasus team in all Equestria.

What are the Unicorn and Earth Pony equivilants?

Probably to be the champion of that rodeo thingy in Last Roundup for the Earth ponies.

Royal guard for the Unicorns. :/

[Pokonic]

Mother of Faust...

If someone doesn't start on that immediately, then I will.

Indeed. Who knew Twilight is the result of a ancient breeding project issued by Celestia to create the most magical unicorn ever? "Raises hand."

[thubby]

My nominations are;
HOLY **** 'CADENCE' IS EVIL!
and
Spike's confession

those are 2 awesome nominations.
im going with spike's confession.

[Alabenson]

Random thought of the day:
If we ever see Celestia and Luna's father in the show, he should be voiced by Brain Blessed (if nothing else it would explain a great deal about Luna).

[Soras Teva Gee]

Twilight says it to Cadance when they're playing together, in the flashback where Cadance is introduced.

Well, so far there is no term, used in-universe or by Word of God, for "alicorn", which is strictly a fan term (and actually used to mean something else entirely, even if related). So far the only term is "pony princess". My personal theory is that alicorns were historically royalty, being more powerful than everyone else, and thus any female alicorn would immediately be made a "princess". In time, whatever word used to be used as the race identifier for the princesses was simply forgotten, and "princess" became both a title and a race name. All alicorns were princesses, and all princesses were alicorns.

Also, this seems to imply that "prince" is just a title, as having it be both for both genders would be too confusing. Perhaps male alicorns do not exist?

Princess Platnium is a historical unicorn figure as well.

Also purely factually Celestia and Luna are referred as "unicorns" in the initial narration from waaay back at the very begining. So we may never get a particular term for alicorns.

[Welf]

Ultimate image dump time!
Plus this, which is linked not only because it's a huge pic, but because it's kinda saucy :o

Nice.

We'll combine the two. Normally, an alicorn commoner would be "adopted" by an existing noble family. Cadence, however, was born to a remote commoner family, and was not discovered until she was in her teenage years. By that point, she was willful enough to rebuff the nobility, who could not countermand her orders, as she technically outranked them. Cadence thus effectively founded her own noble house by virtue of being a winged unicorn. Unfortunately, House Cadence has no money beyond what Cadence manages to earn for herself (or borrow from other noble houses), and I can't imagine she has much experience managing finances...

Her True Love for Shining Armor is really quite fortuitous. House Sparkle gets a massive boost in status, while Cadence gets some much-needed funds. How very, very lucky...

3 other possibilities:
-The Sparkle family is rather influential or is rising in society, so Cadence' family thought it was a good idea to create tight bonds
-Cadence isn't the only or first child, but rather #4 or #5, and her status isn't that high, and it's not beneath her to babysit minor nobles or high commoners
-Cadence wanted a opportunity to makes out with Shining Armour

[Pokonic]

Random thought of the day:
If we ever see Celestia and Luna's father in the show, he should be voiced by Brain Blessed (if nothing else it would explain a great deal about Luna).

Hello, I, Ouranos, Looooorrrrrd of the Sky's, has returned!

[Emperordaniel]

Princess Platnium is a historical unicorn figure as well.

Also purely factually Celestia and Luna are referred as "unicorns" in the initial narration from waaay back at the very begining. So we may never get a particular term for alicorns.

To be exact, the pilot episode states that they use their unicorn powers to raise the sun and moon. If one uses that to "prove" that they are officially called Unicorns in the show, one might as well say that they are Pegasi, because they use their pegasus powers (i.e. wings) to fly.

Last I checked, Hasbro's official term for the race was "Pegasus unicorn", though at least one storyboard artist (Sabrina Alberghetti) refers to them as "Alicorns".

[Soras Teva Gee]

To be exact, the pilot episode states that they use their unicorn powers to raise the sun and moon. If one uses that to "prove" that they are officially called Unicorns in the show, one might as well say that they are Pegasi, because they use their pegasus powers (i.e. wings) to fly.

Nope everyone remembers that line of course but forgets:

"One fateful day, the younger unicorn refused..."

[Forum Explorer]

Well I finally finished the season finale and I am pleased.

Also I see Season II Ruined my Fanon has finally been chosen as a title name. So tell me, how did season 2 ruin your Fanon?

For me it ruined:

There were only two alicorns*

The Royal Guards are useless

Abacus quiet Luna

God-Alicorns


*Special mention goes to this.

A moment of fridge brilliance for this one because we knew this as early as Lesson Zero. During Twilight's nightmare of Magic Kindergarden we saw an alicron foal, we thought it was just an animation error but really it was an early warning of the finale.

Regarding why Princess Candence was a foalsitter here is how I imagine it, she sees Shining Armor at the castle, love at first sight happens and to get close to him she volunteers to be Twilight's foalsitter.


By the way did I miss anything really important and cool? (Like new fanfics written here?)

[Anarion]

.
Refutable.
Discord is a spirit of disharmony. It is the nature of such a creature to play games where it can lose. Discord doesn't have power at all outside such games. He is a narrative structure manifest. He's not all powerful, he's just cunning.

I went with this interpretation for quite a while and would still be willing to go with it now. There are a couple things that imply greater power though. One being the fact that Celestia did nothing (except discreetly send the letters), which makes me think that if he wanted to, Discord could have just zapped her into dust. 2nd is the way he picked up all the ponies at the end even with the elements of harmony on and they had to be saved by Twilight's bubble, which implies that if Discord felt like it he could have just taken control of them at any time (except for Twilight, who apparently vexes him).

Right here you ninny!
Bet you thought we were just being nice because we were your friends huh? Ha! If thanqol and I have taught you anything, it should be that "Friendship is never having to pull your punches."

I'm going to remember this one.

In the phrase "rape and plunder", i don't think that word means what you think it means.

Sadly, if you take a look at much of history, it means exactly what you might think it means.

Believe us; we know, and we enjoy getting him going. There is a soothing cadence to his violent diatribe, like waves of a deep red sea slamming chopping over you while you lie have submerged.

New headcanon. Aotrs is actually a pony princess. His special talent is being a lich. Discuss.

In the beginning, and even up to today, we got a lot of folks who never gave the show a chance, and decided they didn't like it purely out of hype backlash; that it was cool to dislike cool things.

So when you say "eh, it's no [manly stereotype]" what they hear is "I'm insecure and instead of dealing with that I'll say the thing you like is stupid". Which is dumb; pretty much all knee-jerk reactions are dumb. It's rather ironic really.

There's actually two distinct things here. One is people, especially right after the show came out, who would respond with "why would anyone in their right minds ever want to watch this?" It became common to respond to those people by telling them that actually it was really good and they should check it out. A more recent phenomenon (and one that I haven't seen much outside this forum) is people actually saying that it's too popular and they're tired of ponies everywhere even though they don't really mind the show. I feel much more sympathy to that but it is kind of weird that people get more annoyed with ponies than with Star Wars references or Firefly references or [insert your favorite popular show here] references.

I must agree. The heart has no limits. Love is not defined by being solely between two people. Celestia could very well care for her subjects collectively enough that the changelings could all just naturalize and bask.

Possible, but it does strike me as unlikely. Cadence and Shining armor looked surprised when their love magic worked. I don't think that was something ponies had drawn on previously, or if it was, it had been lost and forgotten. Now, in the wake of the wedding, perhaps there will be magical research into how to draw on the power of love. But that would be new for Equestria I think.

TOPIC

We all know the Wonderbolts are the greatest pegasus team in all Equestria.

What are the Unicorn and Earth Pony equivilants?

Earth pony decathalon team. Some events modified for use by mouth or lack of hands.

Unicorn chess team.

*sigh*

Humans are not more "special" than any other sentient species out there, except in their own minds. The more I read things like this, the more convinced I am that the modal distinguishing racial trait of humanity is actually just self-aggrandizement.

I was going to say something about this, but then you went and said exactly what I wanted to say. Bravo sir pony princess lich. Bravo.

Well, so far there is no term, used in-universe or by Word of God, for "alicorn", which is strictly a fan term (and actually used to mean something else entirely, even if related). So far the only term is "pony princess". My personal theory is that alicorns were historically royalty, being more powerful than everyone else, and thus any female alicorn would immediately be made a "princess". In time, whatever word used to be used as the race identifier for the princesses was simply forgotten, and "princess" became both a title and a race name. All alicorns were princesses, and all princesses were alicorns.

Also, this seems to imply that "prince" is just a title, as having it be both for both genders would be too confusing. Perhaps male alicorns do not exist?

This is my headcanon. Particularly knowing that Blueblood was originally intended as a duke, I assume that prince is just a title but princess has a dual meaning as royalty and as being an alicorn.

Season 2 Pony Awards!
Most Dramatic Moment

Note: This is dramatic in the literary sense, not who hammed it up the best.

1. Twilight Sparkle getting her color restored in Return of Harmony part 2.
2. Rainbow Dash getting saved by Tank and riding in to the finish line slowly.
3. Fake Cadence sending Twilight into the floor.

[Gamerlord]

Last I checked, Hasbro's official term for the race was "Pegasus unicorn", though at least one storyboard artist (Sabrina Alberghetti) refers to them as "Alicorns".

Meghan McCarthy referred to them as 'Pegacorns" in a tweet.

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[Emperordaniel]

Meghan McCarthy referred to them as 'Pegacorns" in a tweet.

That makes four different terms that are used by the show or its creators (Pegasus unicorn, Unicorn, Pegacorn, Alicorn). I wonder if we'll ever get a clarification on whether those terms are interchangeable, or if some of them are just nicknames, or whatever...