>>2992 Not so much head canon but I think expanded too much. Used to be little ponies in a big mysterious world.

>>2992 My god, I have so many. I've been scrutinizing the map of Equestria a lot recently and letting my imagination run wild and have arrived at some pretty autistic conjectures.

>>2992 Alicorns are hermaphrodites

>>2992 Twilight and Cadance are both Celestia's daughters raised by foster families

>>2999 I fucking hate this one. Commit 41%

>>2992 There are more than two alicorns

>>2996 Tell us more

>>2996 I'll start with something simple. The Everfree Forest. It's silly to think this feared wilderness is actually just a piddly patch of trees south of Ponyville that is literally smaller than the Whitetail Woods. But if you follow its contours (filling in, mentally, a few trees south of Rambling Rock Ridge, though that could also just be a sparse or deforested area) you see the body of trees stretch all the way south, wrapping around the interior deserts, connecting to the southern jungles, and becoming ever denser the further south it goes. Most of what we see in the show exists in the northernmost tip of the forest, a sort of little panhandle projection that becomes kind of sparse around its fringes and dissolves into the surrounding plains and hills. The forest is so huge it crosses biomes, from temperate forest in the northern panhandle to wetlands and jungle in the south. I like to think the ponies in southern Equestria speak of "the Forbidden Jungle" the same way ponies in northern Equestria speak of the Everfree, and neither population realize they're talking about the same thing. I think that does more justice to the idea of the Everfree as a truly terrifying, mysterious expanse that no one has ever charted than what we see on the map itself.

I have a few which pertain to the pony lifestyle: -Common ponies typically use public bathhouses due in equal parts to the lack of a nudity taboo and the ease of cleaning with another's help. -Utensils such as forks and spoons are only used by rich unicorns. Most ponies eat and drink from bowls. -Baskets are a staple of pony society. Along with saddlebags and bit pouches it is common to see various sizes of mouth-held baskets to be carried by ponies to free up their forelegs and mouth when carrying items. -Horseshoes are only used for utility, such as hooking onto tools and adding grip to certain surfaces.

>>3007 The actual taboo is the act of dressing and undressing.

>>3007 >mouth-held baskets Shit, mouth-hold is so cute for some reason. It's a shame later seasons went full on about magnetic hooves. I like your headcanons, anon.

>>3006 One more and then I'll stop for the time being. Here's Equestria by political boundaries, MS Paint style. Some observations: it seems likely that the Crystal Mountains historically formed the natural border between the Crystal Empire and Equestria (with Rainbow Falls being located in the foothills of the mountains, so slightly further south than it appears on the map). The Equestrian core extends to the midcontinent river that flows past Ponyville, with everything south of that to the Macintosh Hills being frontier territory. The hills effectively mark Equestria's southern border. The most interesting thing I noticed is the desert where Starlight's village was located, nestled between the Crystal Mountains and some hills to the south. It's such an unappealing and useless piece of land, it's not a stretch to think neither Equestria nor the Crystal Empire ever settled there or claimed it, leaving it as a sort of no man's land outside either state's jurisdiction while also making it a useful buffer. It makes sense that someone would stake out a place there if they were looking to start a cult and wanted to stay off the authorities' radar.

Fun, old headcanons: >Octavia is Pinkie's sister Inky >Twilight Velvet is the author of Daring Do

>>3008 Makes me think how funny it would be if they had beach changing tents despite ponies present being both nude and unnude.

There seems to exist a "french" language and culture which is imitated by Equestria's elite. My headcanon is that it comes from the largest one out of several pony nations to the west of Equestria. The Equestrian elite thinks of them as being more exciting and dynamic than Equestria's quite stable, peaceful and conservative culture. However, most normal Equestrians are not interested in any of that, thinking that those nations are all just barbarians and the imitations are silly pretentious nonsense.

>>3031 What degree of warfare do you anons think happen in the world? Realistically there would be plenty of battles but I believe that the inherently docile and kind nature of ponies would significantly lower the mortalities and acts of cruelty that occur.

>>3035 Maybe they're spread out enough that there's just not that much contact with other settlements. Of course there was the buffalo, but I think they were largely ignored.

>>3035 I would say most core territories of Equestria would go centuries without seeing any obvious signs of war. But as you go further out, wars become much more common. I think ponies could be rather ruthless in completing a military or other objective. What they would be incapable of is pointless sadism.

>>3035 I don't think ponies field mass armies the way humans do. My favorite headcanon analogue for pony military doctrine is something like the Salarians from Mass Effect. They would prefer to deter a war before it even began by keeping an enemy tied up in their own territory, whether through surgical strikes or proxy warfare.

>>3051 Aside from the excessive and unnecessary faggotry in The Lunar Rebellion, Chengar Qordath did a great job of conceiving how pony tribal warfare would have happened.

I don't have a head canon per say, just a lots of little fanons compartmentalized into their own little niches. But if I had to pick some favorites, I was always partial to the princesses being depicted as goddesses, at least when it was early on in the show's life cycle. Though the show has since put a huge damper on that, and the depiction is no longer relevant in the current time period, I did like the dynamic it would introduce to have living gods interacting with their subjects as rulers. Writing wise, it made me curious as to the possibilities as to what the other races could have in terms of their pantheon. Maybe something regarding the weather for the gryphons, a war god of storms or some such thing. On a different note however, I have been somewhat curious as to the reasons why people made their head canon, especially if they were prone to changing it the moment the smallest thing contradicted it. I get wanting to be true to the show and all, but you'd think as a fan creation they would be able to compartmentalize it into it's own thing and have multiple ones going at once. That way you could have the best of both worlds, having canon and fanon coexisting in peace either as separate entities going their own way, or meshing into one as time went on. It was a frustrating thing, seeing so much interesting in terms of fanon and head canon alike jettisoned just because it was not in the show, never mind the fact said fanon/head canon had no basis for existing in the first place. If you are going to change it, why even bother creating said stuff in the first place? Might as well wait until the show has ended to make that stuff, to say nothing of what is going to come after that.

>>3130 It may seem silly, but some writers/creators take reader comments very seriously, and get fed up with 'wait x event in the show makes this obsolete' style feedback. Personally I think you should just write whatever you want, and use 'AU' tag if you're on a certain f.mf.c website.

>>3007 >Baskets are a staple of pony society. Along with saddlebags and bit pouches it is common to see various sizes of mouth-held baskets to be carried by ponies to free up their forelegs and mouth when carrying items. I wonder if the incredibly prevalent use of the mouth to hold such commonplace tools like a basket would lead to a culturally-inherent level of body language, since obviously ponies aren't speaking verbally with a handle in their mouth. What might that look like? I think the easiest answer would be for the pegasi simply using their wings, but what of earth ponies and unicorns? Perhaps a brief illumination of the horn? Illusionary magic seems to be the stuff of higher magic tiers that the common unicorn can't do (seemingly they only ever learn levitation at most), but perhaps aura symbols to portray concepts while their mouth is occupied? Thinking about it now, obviously unicorns wouldn't need to hold things in their mouths very often due to previously mentioned levitation, so maybe their body language would be the most lacking of the three races. I'm still stumped for earth ponies though, besides the obvious head-nods or something.

>>3396 >Illusionary magic seems to be the stuff of higher magic tiers She's not a match for Twilight, but it does seem to me that Rarity has more extensive magical abilities than most unicorns.

>>3397 There is a magic to songs. They can make things that are seemingly impossible happen. Set up series of events like dominoes.

>>3397 I agree, and her abilities were so seldom seen. A particularly interesting example I feel is in Rarity's flashback to how she got her cutiemark: We see her innate ability to locate gems, and we see it again at the beginning of A Dog And Pony Show. Obviously it seems that, for a unicorn, their special talent will give them a boost magic-tier wise in their specialization, but I wonder how vague that 'specialization' can be to continue reaping the effects. Like, is Rarity's special talent locating gems and gems only? Or might it be locating any sort of object that she currently wishes to find? This might go into explaining her love of detective novels, and thusly her capability to play detective herself. Obviously we see this play a role also in how she uses gems, having an astute eye for their application in fashion as we all know. To drag this back to the thread's topic: Cutiemarks are seemingly quite nebulous in their meaning and application, and it's a shame we never got a proper deep dive into just how wide their effects can be on a pony and their abilities. Another thing I'm also interested in is how a ponies name at birth may or may not effect their cutiemark. We know from the show that a cutiemark is implied to be something that is decided for them at their birth and will become their life's main focus/job/hobby, but surely a name wouldn't be so often reflective of a pony's special talent, right? We often see that it is however, so my hypothesis is that maybe a name just comes to pony parents instinctually upon the birth of their child, rather than the mother and father spitballing ideas to eachother long before the kid is born like humans do.

>>3398 Was that meant as a counterargument or just as an addition? Because with Rarity it is not only during songs. One possibility I've considered is that rhyming is magical. Twilight does find it strange that Starswirl's spell doesn't rhyme. I wonder if Zecora's rhyming refills some sort of mana pool which can be used later, whereas in pony magic the rhyming is usually included within the spell itself.

>>3011 this one is just true, Ponk only has two sisters, inkie and blinkie

I've always been endlessly curious about the Undiscovered West. I like to think it's a predominantly mountainous area, with the highest summits in all Equestria, but that's all I've got on it, I don't believe it was ever mentioned or referenced in the show.

>>3474 >I don't believe it was ever mentioned or referenced in the show Doesn't really ring a bell for me either. There was the buffalo episode and I think that was set in "the west" but not really the same.

>>3475 I think they are in that episode using word "west" only as a real-world analogy. It's really set in the south on the official map.

How much would you say is fan canon, and how much of it is based on how the show should have been if Hasbro never meddled with it and Lauren stayed in control? Also I still stick to the fanon idea that discord is actually star swirl but some magic he was experimenting with corrupted him.

>>3491 How much of what?

Not really a headcanon, but I always thought the world of equestria was so rich that they could have done multiple spinoffs within the same setting. Kind of similar to how star trek tng, ds9, and voyager were all basically taking place around the same time. What I'm really talking about is, I think what they could have done, is have the main six have monster of the week style big adventure show, and have a separate cast of characters for the slice of life show. Also ever since the first time Baby Cakes aired, I really wanted to see a rugrats style show but set in ponyville.

Celestia and Luna are actually as old as the sun and moon (respectively) themselves, and only just came into political power within the last 10,000 years. Before then, they had acted as quiet protectors hiding away from civilizations, due to some belief of not wanting to interfere with how ponies lived and developed. But then some big bad thing happened, probably related to the wendigos and the hearths warming events, where they finally had to step in personally to save their ponies from dying out, and almost immediately the ponies forced leadership onto the sisters, despite their polite protests. Friendship and love are very powerful magics, but so are hatred and jealousy. This is why Luna was able to become nightmare moon, because a spark of jealousy was fed by dark magics to take control of her mind and body. But also the cause of many other great evils being able to come to power and attack the ponies. There is an imballance in the world, as there's now more good energy than bad energy, and the princesses and elements of harmony are in constant conflict with the chaos.

Twilight is in a magic induced coma caused by star swirl's spell backfiring at the end of MMC. Celelstia and Luna hopped into her dream to give her a strong dream to keep her mind occupied while she's in the coma. The events of everything after season 3 are all just a magic fever dream. That's why her friends slowly become more and more caricatures of themselves as time goes on, because Twilight's subconscious is trying its best to mimic them, but the longer she's unconscious, the more misremembered they become. Meanwhile she's laying in a hospital in Canterlot, and once a month her friends come over to read books to her and hang out. The doctor says she can hear them, and while they're skeptical, it gives them hope that she'll wake up eventually. After the show ends, she finally wakes up, having lived for nearly a century, only to find out she's only been out for about two years.

>>3578 Well, if you'd like to try incorporating some of the less egregious bullshit from the later seasons: You could work into your headcanon that Celestia and Luna had debated on whether to face the Sirens themselves, only to meet Starswirl and the other Guardians of Harmony upon hearing that they had already dealt with the Sirens. It'd explain how Starswirl and the Royal Sisters come to fall under his tutelage for a time. The "big bad" you mention then could just be Discord during his Reign. Perhaps meeting the Guardians would cement this notion in Celestia that somehow, great friends will band together and become the heroes of their ages. When such a group didn't arise during The Reign of Discord, they decided to take matters into their own hands. With the discovery of the Elements of Harmony, they realized their power was too much to simply leave on it's own, to potentially be discovered by another and abused. This would explain why their first castle and assumedly, their first attempt at rulership, was built around the Element's old resting place in the Everfree: They built their seat of power around the Elements to keep them close by. The discovery of the Elements themselves would would probably redouble that notion in Celestia that defense against evil/disharmony in Equestria would be best left to those friends who would rise to the occasion, rather than multiple Elements being wielded by a single/two users, since even at that time we know from Twilight's book in the first episode that the Elements already all had names. Finally, she'd come to fully know that they all shouldn't be wielded by one, as when Celestia did so, she couldn't save Nightmare Moon- only seal her away until the Mane Six would be united to become the heroes of their era. Just some spit-balling from reading your post, take it with a grain of salt. >>3589 Comas are a shitty trope, but I understand the desire to retcon Twilycorn and post-season 3 events. Though, you add an interesting clause in Twilight retaining all her memories of the false-life she dreamed of. It'd add an extremely unhealthy power dynamic between her and her friends though, as, if she retains all the wisdom and life lessons she learned during her coma, it'd erase a lot of her personality flaws present in the show. It also potentially presents new personality flaws in having all of these incredibly lucid false-memories of past foes and conflicts that simply do not and never existed, but at that point she'd be a wildly different character. It's an interesting idea, but very ambitious.

"It only responds to Alicorn magic." We see Celestia and Sombra do similar. The Alicorn Amulet corrupts its user. I'm not sure what I'm getting at, but there seems to be a connection.

>>5878 Dark magic in general is such an odd, untouched aspect of the show. We only see it used, what, four or five times throughout the whole show's run time? Celestia, Twilight, Sombra, and arguably Trixie are the only ones we ever see use it. You can say the same about Discord's chaos magic, but that one is at least easier to handwave off just by saying "Only Discord has access to it"

>>3399 I would say that Rarity's (rather broad) magical specialisation is "prettifyin'". That covers her trademark gem-finding spell, as well as illusions, alteration of objects, precise telekinesis, etc.

What is alicorns aren't real and they are actually just changelings in disguise? This would also mean that Twilight got replaced at the end of season 3.

>>3006 That map is not cannon, it includes shit from episodes after season 3 and.... ugh.... HURL! T H E M O V I E

>>2992 I personally noticed that in the first season the show went out of its way to show that the ponies control almost every aspect of the physical environment, for whatever reason I don't see this brought up. Like, ever, even though it's a pretty major theme in that season. For whatever reason later seasons completely dropped the theme, which makes me think that it had a purpose and original direction that was scrapped. This is also why not all of the show's lifespan should be considered one cannon, because later seasons are just so far off from direction. Anything within seasons 1-3 works with the emotional and material terms of the world, but later than that it gets spotty. I think the theme is very interesting because it's not a normal trope for this kind of media which means that it was supposed to have significant meaning to the setting. Think about it, winter wrap up, the running of the leaves, ponies take care of wild animals, ponies control the weather. This gets even stranger when you consider that Applejack calls the Everfree forest "unnatural" despite it being the only place they DONT manually control every aspect of, which is specifically WHY Applejack calls it unnatural. Think about it, it's a controlled environment on every level. Even the day and night are directly controlled by ponies. Pony control is considered natural and anything they don't control is unnatural. These themes are mentioned many times in season 1 and then buried never to be brought up again. Doesn't it seem strange that there are so many direct and undeniable references like this? This fundamental nature of control is highly important to the setting because it parallels the larger theme of the story. Princess Celestia specifically set up Twilight to become an alicorn as part of a larger conspiracy that you have to look a little deeper to understand the meaning of. Don't you think that the formation of the Mane 6 was a little too perfect? How they all got their cutie marks in one mega improbable magical event? That's because it was set up by Princess Celestia as part of her master plan. They were meant to fill their roles all along, even before they knew what those were. The Mane 6 is not really just a group of friends, t's actually a counterterrorist organization that was brought up by MKultra level social manipulation by a literal godlike entity meant for the purpose of using the elements of harmony to eradicate foreign threats. The forces corrupting Princess Luna. The changelings, who mind you are not really even evil they are just a species that needs to eat just like any other. King Sombra and Discord. These are all threats to national security that are too powerful for any normal defense force. That is why Princess Celestia formed the Mane 6. This is the REAL cannon.

>>7201 Definitely was an interesting aspect. Maybe long ago ponies created everything that is out of pure nothingness? Perhaps Discord could be a left over from this early time?

>>7202 My favorite way of interoperating it is like Greak gods because it fits most in line with the actual structure of the world. In that sense I don't think the ponies created the world, but the gods are fighting proxy wars through the ponies and the world is the setting for that. Celestia and Luna are goddesses of the sun and moon Discord is a chaos god (he's literally referred to as that in the show) Cadence is a more minor goddess, but a goddess of love nonetheless. So what would twilight be once she is made an alicorn? I argue that she is really the princess of harmony. Harmony, of course, being coded language for anything that goes against the health of equestria. In a sense, she actually becomes a goddess of war, which is an interesting direction but is supported by the actual power relations shown in the show.

>>7205 Luna is the original goddess of war. >princess of harmony Harmony my ass. She is the princess of ruin.

>>7213 I said that "harmony" is coded language already, and the actual role she fills is carrying out Celestia's will using the "elements of harmony" which is why I chose the word. I don't think that would be ruin in the context, but you are free to explain what you mean by that. I would be interested in knowing, could be a good head cannon if you back it up. (And the way I am using "princess" is coded too because in the context of the show it seems to just be a replacement for "goddess", princess goddess and alicorn are interchangeable in this discussion)

>>7214 Remember how both in the first and in the finale Twilight narrates the book? Twishit is an unreliable narrator who fucked up everything and desperately tried to whitewash herself in the book because it was she who have written it. All the shit, all inconsistencies, it all because of her. She is a traitor who was entrusted the great power by Celestia and fucked it all up, probably killing or banishing Royal Sisters. I fucking hate Twilight in-universe, as much as I hate Haber and others in reality.

>>7216 LOL, but that's only if you consider stuff beyond season 3 cannon. She narrates the last few sentences of the book in the first episode because she is READING the book, but she does not even narrate most of it Celestia does. The "final" is noncanon because it is not just post season 3, some stuff after season 3 is acceptable, it's fucking season 9 where everything went to COMPLETE shit already the season before. There's actually a cutoff after season 6 where the show is not even warm feeling at any point and just completely sucks, and season 6 already had HUGE narrative problems. If you only consider the first 3 seasons your theory holds no water. I didn't even know that Twilight narrates after the final episode because I could not keep watching at that point, it was too painfully bad.

>>7218 >There's actually a cutoff after season 6 where the show is not even warm feeling at any point and just completely sucks that's also when the intro logo changed from the pink one to the newer one. season 7 is definitely when they really started trolling, but imo the faggotry began in season 5 with "what about discord?". although the ending to that season is a legitimate end to the show

>>7201 This, by and large, is my favorite aspect of MLP, perhaps second only to the concept of "Little ponies in a big world." For the sake of repetitive writing, I'll repost an older essay of sorts I made touching on this topic, and expound upon it after. I'll forewarn and say it's written in a purposefully dry, informative way so as to feed into the "scholarly journal" style, as this was the opening chapter of a fanfic. The Undiscovered West is a sort of lazy curiosity to the ponies of Equestria. While their knowledge of the western border is lacking, Equestria seems to care little in formal colonization of the region, letting it merely serve as the curious stretch of land that signifies a vague stopping point in defining their country. Ponies are seldom the conquering type. To the nobility of Canterlot, whatever lies over yonder will remain, and while maybe one day proper connection to the distant land might be made, it wouldn’t be today. That isn’t to say they wished to be separated, far be it from the hearts and minds of good Equestrians to hate their neighbors, but they simply keep their focus inward. Frontier towns and railroads could be established later, there was no hurry. Even now, Equestria slowly inches forward when presented with the idea of industrialization. Money does not motivate them, for most current-standing railroads have been built for the end result of further connecting potential friends who are spread thin by the distance of their land. That’s their story, anyway. An outsider will quickly notice the pony race’s desire for control over their domain. The weather of what could be called the ‘core’ of Equestria is all manufactured down to the rain droplets, each fluffy cloud placed with precise care each day, every day, since the inception of the legendary Cloudsdale Weather Factory. There is an interesting paradox to take notice of here for the more thoughtful visitors to ruminate upon whilst marveling at Equestria’s landscape: The magic inherent throughout the country is indeed natural, as are their many creations. Their clouds are of no different ethereal wispy strands than those that loom over the Everfree, yet they are manufactured- by living workers, no less. It was the ponies who decided when their seasons ought to change, not the natural fluctuations of weather. So dedicated to this need of control, the most powerful of the ponies, the Alicorn race, harnessed their magic and claimed dominion of the great celestial bodies. Now all of the world must be subject to their whim. When will the sun rise? When Celestia wills it. Some speculate that this addiction to order and control in the ponies is what created Discord so many moons ago, for the ponies had forced a perpetual abundance of what they called ‘harmony.’ This is an inherently flawed outlook however, and foreign scholars who have studied the ponies and their history correctly identify this as ‘order.’ Even in their primeal state, the ponies sought control. Perhaps that is why, then, that Equestria seems to neglect their distant borders. Not out of xenophobia or fear of the unknown, but, more simply, because they do not yet feel able to properly control those environments so far-flung from their idyllic center. They’d be stretched too thin in their control over the natural elements. This isn’t to portray the ponies as authoritarian or even wrong in their actions; it’s a facet of their design. So ingrained into their biology, they cannot help it. Simply, it is a fact of life. But as stated prior, the ponies are naturally driven by this pursuit of what they deem to be correct, and to possess the powers that ensure these ‘corrections’ are made. And sometimes, it seems the stars punish the ponies for this. … All cultures, equine or otherwise, remember when the sun did not rise, and morning did not follow. The madness of Nightmare Moon, and, perhaps, the biggest paradox to ever plague the equines: An individual’s dream of how the world ought to be outshining the long-standing collective dream of what was to be cons

>>7443 considered natural. The stories said it was jealousy for her sister that plunged Princess Luna into that maelstrom of hatred, but that is how the ponies tell it. Seemingly, this had been one of the few times a pony so powerful had sharded away from the sense of common good and right that all Equestrians seem to share. While there have been an unknowable amount of ponies who thought things should be different in Equestria when it came to their control, none had ever held the prestige or power that Princess Luna did. Unlike her weaker rebellious predecessors, she possessed the power to tip the scales. Her philosophy at the time was that the sun was flawed, for ponies could fail and be wrong during their waking moments, and that an eternal night would bring about an eternal slumber in all her subjects. There is no evil done in rest. This would be the ultimate ensurance of harmony in Equestria, peace unending. Ponies could not misunderstand one another while they slumbered, they could not be hurt. The skies would not storm and swirl if the comforting darkness of night cooled its rage, and it too slept. All of the world would be at rest, and all would be free to dream of heaven for as long as the infinite moon hung high in the sky, it too slumbering gently. Of course, this was insanity, and Princess Celestia would not allow such a shift in the status quo. But Luna had seen this vision of utopia, she’d been given this tantalizing glimpse through what most scholars presume now to have been divine intervention, and The Stewardess of Dreams could not continue on peacefully in this now ‘flawed’ world without seeing her ideas made manifest. It was then that Nightmare Moon was born. Princess Celestia was quick to shut down this rogue element and threat to both Equestria and the world, though with much regret. The Stewardess of The Sun was left devastated at her actions against her only sister, but she could not standby and let everything the ponies had built be left to ruin under disuse and inaction. Celestia did not know if Luna had the power to truly put the whole world at rest, but she did not give her sister the chance to try. For a thousand years, Nightmare Moon was to be banished into what would’ve been her singular instrument to bring about the everlasting night, and the eternal sleep that would follow suit. Some scholars argue this too to be a paradox, but many agree upon Celestia’s choice of banishment to be moreso in the vein of poetic justice or irony, though this is less important. Damn character limit cut me off, wasn't paying attention

>>7444 >>7201 The point of this introduction is to delve a bit deeper into an aspect of the ponies that I'd consider, honestly, entirely canon (a thought you seem to share with me): The idea that ponies as a species -from the Princesses down to the youngest colts and fillies- have an innate desire to dominate their natural environment. One could draw an interesting parallel to the old Hearthswarming Tale of the Windigoes as potentially being a cause (or at least, contributing factor) of this: Both/either from the ponies being unable to control the windigoes and their snows (and all the hardship that brought to their lands), or as a cautionary tale as to what can happen to Equestria when the ponies explicitly don't control enough of their natural world. Of course, we're told that the Windigoes were there at all due to the Three Tribes' distrust and disunity with one another; but regardless of the "why," the ponies now in a way claim control over the Windigoes and whether or not they exist to plague Equestria through their mutual self-love and love of one another. What's interesting is that the ponies hold this sort of authoritarian control over natural life in a very benevolent way, and in turn act moreso as natural living stewards of the land, rather than a more humanistic "I just live on this land and claim it as mine, thus I do with it what I please, and damn whatever may arise because of that." We as humans, I feel, separate ourselves from nature and messing with it as "how do I make this work for me without ruining it all?" rather than what I feel is the more Equestrian-angle of "This land IS me, and I am a part of it." To an Equestrian-centric mind: Caring for the land, down to incredibly small things such as "this cloud goes in this seemingly random spot in the sky for today" is moreso akin to how we care for our physical body's wellbeing. In that way, while Earth would remain living and thriving with or without humans, Equestria would die and cease to me without ponies.

>>7445 That's a really interesting point, I hadn't thought about the metaphor in the old Hearthswarming Tale but it totally makes sense. The ponies now control the environment with their unique set of skills that need to come together, but before that they were separated. They could not control the factors in unison because they were not working together. I'm going to go back a bit further than you did, because for the ponies to have to come together to control things one or two histories must have happened before. Either Equestria was stable on its own until some kind of climate crisis, or it was always managed by the ponies and the ponies were separated by some evil force within their nature they had to overcome. Either way there was a harsh event that made it necessary for the ponies to either come back together or come together for the first time. These are generalizations, but they encompass the story in the way a religious text actually does tell a real story about the human condition with metaphors. The windigo may not have literally happened, but they do represent the inciting event of the age of ponies and tell a narrative that loosely must be true in the world. It fits that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna seem to have been created at this time too to make the union complete, taking the role of gods.

So I was thinking about Chrissy and the changelings a few days back, and remembered something minor, but potentially able to mean maybe something at least. When we first meet Chrissy, she's disguised as Cadence. However, her eyes are green: Something that should be an obvious giveaway that something's not right. There's no point in going into that any deeper at the moment, because obviously Twilight should've noticed that, but we know why she didn't for the sake of the finale. Anyway, we see the form she takes on later in The Mean Six also having her green eyes. As far as I'm aware, the pony she was pretending to be didn't exist prior -at least not in Ponyville- but I feel it's safe to assume that probably wasn't that mare's original eye color. Regular changelings, from A Canterlot Wedding, to The Times They Are A Changeling, and so on don't have this issue. I've been trying to ascertain why Chrissy has this seemingly weaker disguise ability in comparison to her subjects. We know Chrissy has pony-esque eyes in comparison to her hive: Could there be any sort of significance here? I know this isn't a headcanon, but moreso an inquiry to hear some ideas.

>>8298 That's not even true, in the scenes where she is disguised as Cadence her eyes are purple. It's her magic aura that is green and the only scene where the eyes are green they flash green for a moment to reveal that she is evil at the end. She has different looking eyes than the other changelings because changelings work on insect principles. That trait has to do with her being the only female, which raises the interesting topic of how she reproduces. I'm going to go out there and say it's like how bees do it where most of them are sexless except the drones and the queen. She has sex with the drones and then kills them, which produces more sexless worker/fighter changelings and a few more drones to repeat the cycle.

The fuck be going on in this house?

>>14508 ?

>>14513 Mosty of the background houses don't look that fucked up. Sure, some of them got arches and they all look cartoony, but nothing like the one in that image. Like, there is an implicit visual code and this doesn't fit. Part of the roof isn't even thatched! Who even lives there? Screwball?

Theory: Glimmer is not domineering in bed. Actually, she wants her partner to strongly take the lead and control the situation, but she does not know this consciously. How does this square against her aggressive personality as a villian? Well, due to abandonment issues (the Sunburst issue, or maybe her father) she feels a latent sense of strong insecurity. To compensate, at the subconscious level, she seeks to control everyone and everything around her. This substitutes, artificially, for an internal sense of security. However, when she meets somepony with greater emotional power and resolve than her, but who seeks her welfare, this can substitute for a sense of internal security. This security thus established, she becomes more passive. It can happen this way with a lover or maybe with a friend (like the friendship between Twilight and Glimmer that resulted in Glimmer calming down substantially). Thoughts?

>>14761 Possibly. I would think that she would have some strange oddities about her, but perhaps that's more so due to the fandom than Glimmer herself. She'd probably get a bit less strange if she had someone offering up genuine friendship to her.

How hereditary do you think cutie marks are?

>>14772 Fairly. The entire apple family has apple related cutie marks. Twilight's parents cutie marks have something to do with night or twilight. Princess Luna and Celestia have related, but opposing cutie marks. Rainbow Dash's father has a rainbow related cutie mark. Etc. Maybe it's a nature vs. nurture thing though?

>>3010 I appreciate your attempt at trying to delimit the national boundaries that should exist on the Equestrian continent. In general this is a very good job. I would take interest with your observations in only one respect. As far as the Crystal Mountains go you assert that they form a natural boundary and therefore they would be unclaimed. This is not how it works. Natural boundaries are claimed because of their strategic importance if nothing more. You should know that if the ponies didn't claim them then those fucking Yaks would. I would say that they are more likely to be part of the Crystal Empire since they are already up there along that range. What would stop them from claiming the rest of it? The Equestrians? It acts more as a natural boundary against the Equestrians than against the crystal ponies. In my own headcanon the crystal ponies come from the liquid crystal societies which are underground that I imagine to extending beneath the entire 'Crystal Mountain' range. If the 'Crystal Empire' doesn't own them it honestly should. I mean, why would they be called the Crystal 'Empire' in the first place if they were just some dinky little state? I would think that it would make more sense if the Crystal Empire served as a buffer zone between the ponies and the yaks.

>>14856 >>3031 Given the size of Equestria and the cultural differences we do see in the way of accents in speech it is reasonable to expect others like you suggest.

>>3010 >>14856 Maps are fun and all, but they have some problems. For one thing there is no map of Equestria in the show and most places are not shown in relation to each other. Some major landmarks just disappear and re-appear (The mountain from Dragonshy is a good example). The only place we have a decent picture of it is Ponyville valley, but even that isn't fully consistent. Then with that particular map it has shit from the movie and Twilight's eyesore castle. I think I speak for most anon here that I don't consider those canon. Another problem that most maps face is that they are not fleshed out. They only have places that are directly referenced in the show when realistically they should be much bigger. Think how many other small valley towns like Ponyville there must be that the mane characters would have no reason to know about or reference.

>>14860 By the way, it could be a fun project to try addressing these problems and make a more representative map as a group project; one that represents the most commonly held canon on NHNB. It would bring up lots of smaller topics and fit very well in this thread.

>>14861 That would be a whole lot of fun. With respect to taking the map literally I made this observation about Rainbow Falls: Another Speculative Note on the geographic significance of the location of Rainbow Falls as a likely center of illicit trade Just Looking at the map of the North-Eastern portion of Equestria where Rainbow Falls resides, given the location up in the hills bordered by the Yacket Range and the Crystal Empire on one side while to the East across the Narrow Sea there is ready access to Griffonstone and the Bugbear Territory on the other one can readily see how Rainbow Falls offers an ideal location not only for trade in general but for illegal trade in particular. Given it's remoteness from the center of administrative authority and Equestrian control along with the many avenues of flight to alternate jurisdictions including to the Crystal Empire, Yacket Range, Griffonstone, etc. and the fact that the transactions are conducted in what looks to be a swap meet one might expect at least some of the property to be either stolen or considered illicit in nature by one or more of the principalities mentioned. (Other maps I've seen suggest exactly the same situation btw.. :)

Making a map of Equestria that represents a more full world that is only touched on in the show would be a very fun project. It would also tie into the macot thread because part of that is the setting that they live in; fields of barley in the lands beyond Equestria where only earth ponies live. Having a large and detailed map would complement that nicely.

I've been making my own world map for the mlp universe using the cutie map as a base and fleshing out the otherwise empty area. I started it mostly as a way to put my homebrew lore into practice as well as putting a semi-realistic spin on the map.