My Little Pony XXXIV: There is Pony of it, no exceptions!

[Topaz]

true non heretical theory:

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Alicorns are gods, and were always worshiped by ponies though never did they appear physically, except maybe to devout worshippers. And that is why they were represented on the first Equestrian flag.

But during the Discordian Age, the hope and fervent prayers of ponies mixed with the ancient friendship magic, and thus the perfect fusion of all pony races are made manifest, in fact, they are friendship magic incarnate. There should be no doubt to their divinity or their divine right to rule.

There, I said it, can I be let go now?

edit: frankly this makes the origin of Celestia and Luna that much closer to How the Emperor of Mankind were created. 40k Pony Canon?

I like this theory. Fills the plot holes raised by the episode.

I like that theory too. Makes everything good again

this seems like a fairly good idea if i understood everything right

Me four! Kairaven is best pony historian!

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My current pet theory is that it takes hundreds or thousands of unicorns working together to raise and lower the sun and moon, so the ponies see the Princesses as having freed the unicorns from that task which allowed them to come up with all the magitech innovations that have made all ponies' lives better.

This made me think, what do Earth Ponies and Pegasi wear instead of rings? They have no horns.

Have we even seen anything like that on the married couples in the show?

[AlterForm]

Oh, and a bit of info that I'm probably entirely too interested in, a visual depiction of how the animators put Twilight's hair together:

(Inconceivably minor Hearthswarming Eve spoilers)

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[legomaster00156]

On pegasi career choices (episode spoilers!)

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So, another interesting piece from the show. In last week's episode, it was shown that the Wonderbolts were members of the Equestrian military. In this episode, it is shown that the original pegasi had an established military, and placed their Commander as their ruler. They were violent and brave, but at the same time, they were organized. They weren't afraid to stoop to weather control.
In the current age of Equestria, I theorize that the pegasi are pretty much split into two factions: the "mundane citizens", which include the weather teams and the pegasi who's special talents are unrelated; and the core of the Equestrian military, who also include most of the Royal Guard pegasi.
It makes sense that the original "army clan" would make up most of the modern-day military, but we see several pegasi that are quite clearly simple citizens. However, I think it's a good idea that pegasi would make up the army, not only because of their roots and personalities, but also their abilities. They obviously are capable of flight, and they have also been seen (and heard) to be capable of making their wings razor-sharp when needed.

[Kairaven]

New Episode General:

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Meh. Reads like a propaganda drive rather than a myth. I, personally, see no reason why this should contest with anypony's fanon; it's clearly as inaccurate as any other Christmas movie in circulation.

This one is getting judged way harsher than usual, though, because I'm soaked in mythology up to my ears. The episode was all right, nothing more. Bottom of the S2 heap for me, just over Mare Do Well (which I've decided is my least favourite pony episode of all time, which is a real pity given how many cool concepts it invokes).

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I don't buy this because it implies I can't ship cross-species. Unless you're talking about... oh my god. The only way to get an Alicorn is to have a parent of all three pony races. And the only way to do THAT is to use Esperderek's Book.

QED the Book is Discord's evil doing.

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AHA! A PLOT HOLE! I KNEW IT! THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS TALKING ABOUT!

With pegasus ponies, I've always been a fan of the notion that they give the gift of a feather, which their other half affixes to their own wing. "And may a part of me always be with you".

Also, I'm unable to get the image of anyone other than Derpy performing weddings due to one comic I saw ages back.

Merriwether Williams:

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I am starting to dislike her. The main reason is that her stories, though well written, is far and apart from what ponies had established.

It may be due to her being new writer. Aside from her rather off-character protrayal of the main 6, the main thing I have a problem with is she has been breaking minor pony conventions left and right. Trains, dams, construction cranes, using foot for measurement when the word "giant" could work just as well. Basically she feels like a "guest writer" that is messing around with the ponyverse. Not badly mind you, but rather carelessly that can cause problems later.

Heretical theory discussion:

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Discord can magically subtract/add horns and wings, I didn't so much mean scientifically breeding alicorn but rather some discordian magic may be involved in our pony pricesses' creation.

...citizen, we need to have a "chat" again...

Oh no, I didn't mean what I said, no, not the comfy stable!!!

Pony military:

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people alway forget that the fighting force is only part of a standing military organization, I am sure the modern equestrian Military needs unicorn clerks to track pays and acolates and file reports, and earth ponies for logistical supply.

And you can see in the episode that with out food supply from earth ponies, the pegasi troops were starving.

[legomaster00156]

Pony military:

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people alway forget that the fighting force is only part of a standing military organization, I am sure the modern equestrian Military needs unicorn clerks to track pays and acolates and file reports, and earth ponies for logistical supply.

And you can see in the episode that with out food supply from earth ponies, the pegasi troops were starving.

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I did say the pegasi were the core of the military, not the entire thing.

[Deadly]

Merriwether Williams:

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I am starting to dislike her. The main reason is that her stories, though well written, is far and apart from what ponies had established.

It may be due to her being new writer. Aside from her rather off-character protrayal of the main 6, the main thing I have a problem with is she has been breaking minor pony conventions left and right. Trains, dams, construction cranes, using foot for measurement when the word "giant" could work just as well. Basically she feels like a "guest writer" that is messing around with the ponyverse. Not badly mind you, but rather carelessly that can cause problems later.

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Her two episodes so far have seemed in some ways different, I'll agree. I'm wondering how much of that we can attribute to her, though.

We had trains back in Over a Barrel, and the way I understood it most of the team were all "Yay, trains!" but Faust wanted to keep the tech level lower, so they made a compromise by having it pulled by horses. Maybe the train we see in this episode is simply a result of Faust having left and may have nothing to do with Merriwether Williams but rather the team as a whole being less dedicated to keep the tech level low without Faust. It's also possible that Hasbro said "Hey, we want to make this train as a toy, can you fit it in?" And they did.

I'm thinking an episode is probably a major collaboration, with the final result bearing the marks of most of the team. It's probably difficult to say which parts were due exclusively to the designated writer alone.

I'm hoping her next episode will get a better response.

[Beacon of Chaos]

Um, that's The Hub's Facebook page. Seems pretty official to me.

Hub doesn't make the episodes, Hasbro does.

As a point of order, this was actually the longest callback ever, clocking in around 9 years.

I... don't get it.


Ignoring the rest of the episode discussions. On to another image dump.

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[Deadly]

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Yay! Weird Al Ponies!

Has that song been fully poniefied yet? It must be.

[Anarion]

I... don't get it.

The 7th strip of 8-bit theater (link) had a joke that a party of 4 white mages would never work, despite its apparent recommendation by Nintendo Power Magazine. That was published in 2001. The strip I linked before was #1221, wasn't published until 2010, and was the first reference back to that comment (and that magazine) in 1214 strips. In fact, you could say that the entire comic was simply the 9 year setup to a brick joke.

[Geno9999]

Okay, my two bits to pony history:

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Celestia and Luna were always deities, but not physical deities. This explains why they were on the Equestrian banner (other than a potential in-universe of Did Not Do The Research), when they didn't rule Equestria. Celestia and Luna were presented in a pony form for the same reasons why ancient civilizations' gods in the real world are portrayed as having a human form.
My guess is that around when Discord decided to cause all hell to everypony, Celestia and Luna decided to take physical form to create and/or wield the Elements of Harmony to stop him.
However, when they did stop Discord, either A: the sisters were unable to return to whence they came, B: they decided to stay out of their free will and love for the ponies. Either way, the unicorns surrender their role of controlling the sun and moon, and the Sisters take roles as princesses of Equestria.
Until Luna gets jealous and becomes Nightmare Moon.

[Beacon of Chaos]

The 7th strip of 8-bit theater (link) had a joke that a party of 4 white mages would never work, despite its apparent recommendation by Nintendo Power Magazine. That was published in 2001. The strip I linked before was #1221, wasn't published until 2010, and was the first reference back to that comment (and that magazine) in 1214 strips. In fact, you could say that the entire comic was simply the 9 year setup to a brick joke.

Aaaaah, okay, thanks ^^

Okay, I wasn't going to get in on the episode stuff but I saw this and thought I'd throw it out there.

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Goodnight Ponythread.

[RobD]

So, hey! I've finished a pict I've been working on for the last few days. Take a look!

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It's....uh, it's quite a bit too big to post in the thread. Sorry. Here's a link instead!

[Gamerlord]

Have we even seen anything like that on the married couples in the show?

If you're talking about the rings on horns, Prince Glueblood offered one to Rarity in her imagination sequence from Ticket Master.

[Anarion]

Okay, my two bits to pony history:

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Celestia and Luna were always deities, but not physical deities. This explains why they were on the Equestrian banner (other than a potential in-universe of Did Not Do The Research), when they didn't rule Equestria. Celestia and Luna were presented in a pony form for the same reasons why ancient civilizations' gods in the real world are portrayed as having a human form.
My guess is that around when Discord decided to cause all hell to everypony, Celestia and Luna decided to take physical form to create and/or wield the Elements of Harmony to stop him.
However, when they did stop Discord, either A: the sisters were unable to return to whence they came, B: they decided to stay out of their free will and love for the ponies. Either way, the unicorns surrender their role of controlling the sun and moon, and the Sisters take roles as princesses of Equestria.
Until Luna gets jealous and becomes Nightmare Moon.

Warhammer 40k response.

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You do realize what this means, right? The Alicorn sisters are actually Warhammer 40k C'tan. They existed peacefully until taking mortal form, but then became subject to emotions and turned corrupt. It's only a matter of time until Celestia cracks and turns on us all!

So, hey! I've finished a pict I've been working on for the last few days. Take a look!

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It's....uh, it's quite a bit too big to post in the thread. Sorry. Here's a link instead!

I love some of the small details. Gems on Rarity's sword, half of Fluttershy appearing next to Twilight who's teleporting her to safety, and the sun symbol on the collapsed statue were all nice touches.

Also, who's the kid behind the dragon's left foot near the edge of the picture?

[Tectonic Robot]

You can't have ponyhammer 40k without boars!

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[RobD]

I love some of the small details. Gems on Rarity's sword, half of Fluttershy appearing next to Twilight who's teleporting her to safety, and the sun symbol on the collapsed statue were all nice touches.

Also, who's the kid behind the dragon's left foot near the edge of the picture?

Ah, that would be a really-too-small-to-be-worth-it inclusion of your friend and mine,

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Derpy.

...in a Link costume.

[Aotrs Commander]

So, somewhat belatedly again, got round to watching today's episode. So, as usual, my initial reactions, with back-reading the thread to come shortly...

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That...was not what I was expecting at all.

It was interesting - there were a few funny moments; "Chancellor Pudding Head" probably being the single funniest... In fact, Pinkie with Applejack as the straight-mare pretty much stole the show, there, despite some stiff competition from Rarity and Twilight. (And the shot of Rarity riding Twilight is so going to be taken out of context...)

It raised a lot of questions, though, like why did this train not need to be pulled by ponies? Or perhaps a better question is, why was the one to Appleloosa pulled if steam power is available? What, is coal at a premium so they ran out or something? Possible, as Equestria's large number of gemstone resources may come at the cost of other natural mineral resources, and they may have to manufacture coal (or charcoal perhaps, but the latter is probably magically doable for ponies).

"Before the rule of Princess Celestia" and unicorns raising the sun and moon asks so many questions... Further enhanced by the flag with the Princesses on it. I suppose that could just be the modern flag. Or perhaps the Princesses existed (as or venerated as goddesses), but didn't rule directly (perhaps their predessors?) That opens up so many questions about the mythology, and to be honest, it strikes me as a bit haphazardly done in terms of writing, as if Celestia was sort of shoved aside so they could tell this particular aesop about friendship, and I'm not sure I like that.

Still, it could be that Celestia's predecessor simply were not as benevolent as she was in later years (or perhaps she wasn't herself until later, who knows).

(If Discord was in charge of the world, for example, he probably couldn't be everywhere at once, and until Equestria was big enough for him to notice, he may have been the other side of the world, tormenting dragons or gryphons or something.)



Spike is also nearly as big an attention-hog as Rarity and people say they have nothing in common...!

This episode is going to cause so much debate...

Right, back to catch up on the rest of the comments...

[HalfTangible]

You can't have ponyhammer 40k without da boarz!

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[IMG]http://th01.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/f/2011/267/7/8/warboar_grimskull_by_sanity_x-d4ar2sc.jpg[IMG]

ftfy

GADDA DA BOARZ!!! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!

[Tectonic Robot]

ftfy

GADDA DA BOARZ!!! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!

Hehehe, I'm glad you liked it! Sanity-x is a treasure trove of ponyhammer 40k pictures. I'm waiting hopefully for when the Jackrons are done!

Episode spoilers!

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I haven't seen it yet, but I heard about some cool new dudes named the Windigos! Do they play a big role in the episode?

[HalfTangible]

Hehehe, I'm glad you liked it! Sanity-x is a treasure trove of ponyhammer 40k pictures. I'm waiting hopefully for when the Jackrons are done!

Episode spoilers!

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I haven't seen it yet, but I heard about some cool new dudes named the Windigos! Do they play a big role in the episode?

*points to sig* Join the Herd.... LIKE A FAUST!!

[Aotrs Commander]

New episode:

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Now having caught up with the thread...

Spikes says before Celestia's RULE. This could mean before she was born, before she was corporeal, or merely she was directly in charge. She could have been alive and corporeal (and a goddess) at the time, just in a different part of the world. (Equestria may not be massive, after all). Indeed, nothing says that the three tribes were the only tribes of ponies in the world - Celestia could have been in charge of some other pre-Equestrian civilisation elsewhere at the time Equestria was formed, and gravitated there later (perhaps elected as Princess after freeing them from Discord's rule?)

(She's still a goddess, as far as I'm concerned, and no-pony is going to convince me otherwise until they specificallt state in the show, which they won't!)

A point no-one has brought up so far is that in Everfree Forest, the sun and moon raise by themselves, do they not? Perhaps the sun and moon are more local effects? I'm not sure I'm any more comfortable with that idea, either, though...



I didn't say what I thought overall, did I? I think this was probably the weakest episode of this season, mostly because it was fairly careless with it's own established history (it raises more questions than it answered, and my impression was that they didn't think about it very hard, and that is a cardinal sin in my eyes. And no "it's ultimately a show for kids" is NOT a defense; I don't care if you're writing for two-year olds, there is NO EXCUSE for not thnking about what you're writing and checking; for frag's sake, if you can't even be arsed to check google or wiki in this day and age to make sure you are consistent with yourself, you shouldn't be fragging doing the job, you lazy incompetant!

Raaagh!

Ahem.)

Heh, Ep11:

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Pony heights confirmed, just measure them against that "Eight Foot(?!) Candy Cane Twilight spys at the beginning." Looks like the mane six are about 3 Feet (??!) tall. PERFECT HUGGING SIZE!

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Which confirms Bobcat's estimates (which I concurred with) from a while back. Official confirmation is all helpful. Also, ponies use imperial measurements, which begs the question - where the hay did they get the term "feet" from? Presumably, a non-equine empire must have invented the measurement?

Right, I had better go meditate to regain my mana, since I was dead late watching the show today, and I'm trying to to get my meditation time back to some pre-2 o'clock in the morning...

[Pokonic]

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Which confirms Bobcat's estimates (which I concurred with) from a while back. Official confirmation is all helpful. Also, ponies use imperial measurements, which begs the question - where the hay did they get the term "feet" from? Presumably, a non-equine empire must have invented the measurement?

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The Dogs had a empire too, yah know.

[Kairaven]

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The Dogs had a empire too, yah know.

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Paws

[Pokonic]

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Paws

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They have thumbs. Thats good enough for me.

Huh, three spoilers this time. Am I overdoing it?

On the episode

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The pegusi military dictatorship was interesting. On as for why some pegusi are not realy into it as others, I would chalk it up in the same way most people with varying european blood in the U.S realy do not attempt to make do on there heritage: they simply do not have a reason to.

Ponies like Fluttershy are not realy sutiable for the life of a Cloudsdalien, with some having talents with no real uses in the skies, and others may simply be the decendents of those who decided to leave the cloud cities and give land a shot. Others, like Rainbow dash, simply left the cities for a job. Seeing that her house is clearly made in the greek style of her home, it seems that she is still attached to the city in some way. Fluttershy, on the the other hand, has almost none of the competive side seen in every other young pegusi seen so far.

On the new monster:

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Anybody notice the nice, long shot of the moon right before the Wintergasts are first seen? Seems to me that these guyes have some sort of connection with luna.

On the need of freindship.

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The universe inforces it!

Angry with sister because of a lack of appeciation? Gets corrupted, wars for a few years, and gets sent to the moon.

Argue near random statue? Awaken elder god-thing.

Argue inside woods? Alert of hungery creatures, all of which can eat/roast/petriafy/ DATA EXPUNGED/ect you into oblivion.

Bicker amongst one another? Makes the local kill-sat useless.

Argue during winter? Malevolent winter spirits freeze everything to death.


Yeash, at this rate, I think I would take my chances on a vacation to Friendship Vally.

[Lord Raziere]

On the need of freindship.

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The universe inforces it!

Angry with sister because of a lack of appeciation? Gets corrupted, wars for a few years, and gets sent to the moon.

Argue near random statue? Awaken elder god-thing.

Argue inside woods? Alert of hungery creatures, all of which can eat/roast/petriafy/ DATA EXPUNGED/ect you into oblivion.

Bicker amongst one another? Makes the local kill-sat useless.

Argue during winter? Malevolent winter spirits freeze everything to death.


Yeash, at this rate, I think I would take my chances on a vacation to Friendship Vally.

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This is why I'm starting to think Friendship as less of a virtue in this show and more of an evolutionary adaptation that the ponies possess that makes them the dominant species of their world. Every time it goes away bad things happen and when it comes back, it somehow solves the problem.
Again, Friendship seems more and more like a survival mechanism in this world than a virtue unto itself. the more its shown to solve things, the more I think that the ponies don't possess friendship because its a virtuous trait of society, but because its a necessary and vital mechanism for surviving and living in their world of monsters and such that feed off and take advantage of chaos, discord and conflict.

[Topaz]

So, hey! I've finished a pict I've been working on for the last few days. Take a look!

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It's....uh, it's quite a bit too big to post in the thread. Sorry. Here's a link instead!

Woah. That's epic! It's going to take me a while to appreciate all the details.

If you're talking about the rings on horns, Prince Glueblood offered one to Rarity in her imagination sequence from Ticket Master.

But none of the married couples in the show are shown with any obvious equivalents, are they? The Cakes, Twilight or Pinkie or Rarity's parents?

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It raised a lot of questions, though, like why did this train not need to be pulled by ponies? Or perhaps a better question is, why was the one to Appleloosa pulled if steam power is available? What, is coal at a premium so they ran out or something? Possible, as Equestria's large number of gemstone resources may come at the cost of other natural mineral resources, and they may have to manufacture coal (or charcoal perhaps, but the latter is probably magically doable for ponies).

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My theory is that the Appleoosan train used a more primitive engine that could not do the job by itself, while the new train (only introduced in Season 2 proper) uses a state of the art engine.

New episode:

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A point no-one has brought up so far is that in Everfree Forest, the sun and moon raise by themselves, do they not? Perhaps the sun and moon are more local effects? I'm not sure I'm any more comfortable with that idea, either, though...

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When Nightmare Moon brought eternal night, it explicitly included the Everfree Forest, so unlike the weather and such the Everfree doesn't appear to have an independent sun-moon cycle.

[Pokonic]

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This is why I'm starting to think Friendship as less of a virtue in this show and more of an evolutionary adaptation that the ponies possess that makes them the dominant species of their world. Every time it goes away bad things happen and when it comes back, it somehow solves the problem.
Again, Friendship seems more and more like a survival mechanism in this world than a virtue unto itself. the more its shown to solve things, the more I think that the ponies don't possess friendship because its a virtuous trait of society, but because its a necessary and vital mechanism for surviving and living in their world of monsters and such that feed off and take advantage of chaos, discord and conflict.

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Yeah, this world seems less and less like a paradice and more like a place in which friendship is manditory. To be fair, this is little differnent than saying in DnD you have to be of good alingment or you will end up as some outsiders snack.

but none of the married couples in the show are shown with any obvious equivalents, are they? The Cakes, Twilight or Pinkie or Rarity's parents?

Nope. The nearist thing we have to ring jewerly on non-unicorns are Zecoras bands.

[otakuryoga]

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so just watched the hd rip on youtube

noticed that rarity put her crown on upside down when she attempted to leave the 3-way summit


and wow..no one else wondering about the derpy ancestor?

[Pokonic]

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so just watched the hd rip on youtube

noticed that rarity put her crown on upside down when she attempted to leave the 3-way summit


and wow..no one else wondering about the derpy ancestor?

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The Clan of the Derpy Eye has had its hooves in Equestrian security since the begining.

[HalfTangible]

New episode:

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Now having caught up with the thread...

Spikes says before Celestia's RULE. This could mean before she was born, before she was corporeal, or merely she was directly in charge. She could have been alive and corporeal (and a goddess) at the time, just in a different part of the world. (Equestria may not be massive, after all). Indeed, nothing says that the three tribes were the only tribes of ponies in the world - Celestia could have been in charge of some other pre-Equestrian civilisation elsewhere at the time Equestria was formed, and gravitated there later (perhaps elected as Princess after freeing them from Discord's rule?)

(She's still a goddess, as far as I'm concerned, and no-pony is going to convince me otherwise until they specificallt state in the show, which they won't!)

A point no-one has brought up so far is that in Everfree Forest, the sun and moon raise by themselves, do they not? Perhaps the sun and moon are more local effects? I'm not sure I'm any more comfortable with that idea, either, though...



I didn't say what I thought overall, did I? I think this was probably the weakest episode of this season, mostly because it was fairly careless with it's own established history (it raises more questions than it answered, and my impression was that they didn't think about it very hard, and that is a cardinal sin in my eyes. And no "it's ultimately a show for kids" is NOT a defense; I don't care if you're writing for two-year olds, there is NO EXCUSE for not thnking about what you're writing and checking; for frag's sake, if you can't even be arsed to check google or wiki in this day and age to make sure you are consistent with yourself, you shouldn't be fragging doing the job, you lazy incompetant!

Raaagh!

Ahem.)

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Which confirms Bobcat's estimates (which I concurred with) from a while back. Official confirmation is all helpful. Also, ponies use imperial measurements, which begs the question - where the hay did they get the term "feet" from? Presumably, a non-equine empire must have invented the measurement?

Right, I had better go meditate to regain my mana, since I was dead late watching the show today, and I'm trying to to get my meditation time back to some pre-2 o'clock in the morning...

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No. In the everfree forest, animals take care of themselves, plants grow alone, and clouds move on their own. The moon stayed up in Everfree in episodes one and two, despite the fact that the sun should've been up.