Main Index
Shared Universes, Ponies, Equestria, Equestrian Culture, Science and Magic, Other Species (Changelings, Dragons)
Shared Universes, Ponies, Equestria, Equestrian Culture, Science and Magic, Other Species (Changelings, Dragons)
Guesses about what other series the universe of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic may be connected to.
- Except Care Bears is not a Hasbro IP. Rather, they're owned by American Greetings.
- THIS IS A CROSSOVER THAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN. NOW. Jack/Pinkie Pie! Get on it!
- Sorry, no Pinkie Pie. Have some Samurai Applejack instead!
- Adding to this, Discord may be one of Aku's minions.
- Or rather, Discord is a rival of Aku. In a battle of evil against chaos.
- Sorry, no Pinkie Pie. Have some Samurai Applejack instead!
- It's been written.
- If you look very closely at the moon as seen in "Song of the Petalars" there are a series of shadows on it that look suspiciously like the "Mare in the Moon" as seen in the pilot.
- The one remaining link between the two lands is Rainicorns, who were the result of ponies who migrated from Equestria to Ooo for one reason or another, and were changed over time by the differing environment.
- The chunk missing from Ooo's planet isn't really missing, it's out of phase - and it is Equestria. It exerts enough influence on Ooo's planet to keep it acting like a real sphere, and to stop the ground collapsing in to fill the gap; but other that, that huge chunk of planet has been shifted into another plane of reality. Princess Celestia had to create a new sun for Equestria because Ooo's sun is out of phase from Equestria, (except in places like the Everfree forest, which is peripheral enough to leech off the light and warmth of Ooo). The phase-shift is precarious, and has to be actively reinforced by Princess Celestia - who is desperate to keep her realm isolated from the relative chaos of Ooo.
- Could be the same universe as Regular Show then, as Adventure Time has been theorized to be the distant future of THAT show.
- The series could also take place in the past of Adventure time, with Finn and Jake occupying what was once the Ponyville Library.
- Which would mean Pinkie Pie was actually wearing "Grucho Glasses" in Party of One.
- Alternatively, MLP takes place thousands of years AFTER Adventure Time, and the rise of Discord was too much for Finn and Jake to combat, ending the era of the Land of Ooo forever.
- If Equestria is in the same world as the Land of Ooo, why hasn't the Ice King tried to kidnap Princess Celestia? Simple. He did once, but wound up letting her go once she started melting things. He didn't learn what Celestia was trying to teach him, but she at least got some amusement out of it.
- Princess Celestia keeps saying that bad things happened a thousand years ago, like Discord, Nightmare Moon, King Sombra, etc., the same time the Great Mushroom War was occurring in that timeline. Possibly the same explosion that created the Lich created King Sombra as well...
- I wrote a story about this.
- There's actually an Adventure Time comic book that shows Princess Bubblegum and Peppermint Butler riding ponies. They're not even drawn with Black Bead Eyes. This confirms that ponies DO exist in their universe. Later in the comic, PB is talking about The Power of Friendship...
- This fanfic is based on a similar idea.
- This universe has that idea.
In either case, the gods left the mortal world forever, but all was not lost. In this time, a hero had risen, who had struggled to defend his people: Pegasus, now lord of all equines. Before they left, the gods honored Pegasus with gifts. Many were merely artifacts or jewelry (one such piece, Harmonia's gift, still surviving to this day), but Zeus, in his gratitude, gave Pegasus 2 daughters, twin alicorns Luna and Celestia. When Pegasus finally passed away to join the gods in Olympus, Luna and Celestia lived on, and so were crowned princesses.
Without the gods to manage the world, the equines (now known as "ponies", and looking very different from their ancestors) had to make do with a bit of magic and elbow grease; the princesses themselves took care of the sun and the moon. In time, the ponies inherited the silly Schizo Tech of their human forebears, and what remained of the palace that had stood upon Mount Olympus was converted into a grand pegasus capital, Cloudsdale.
- World 1: The universe of G1, which contains the My Little Pony TV Specials, My Little Pony 'n Friends, and My Little Pony Tales.
- World 2: The universe of G2, which contains My Little Pony: Friendship Gardens (a video game, not a TV series, but still takes place in this universe).
- World 3: The universe of G3.
- World 4: The universe of G4, which contains My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
- World 5: The universe of Equestria Girls.
- The events of "Make New Friends but Keep Discord" make this likely.
The farthest point of The Everfree Forest we've ever seen is actually near the very end of it. And the Abyss of nothingness is actually quite small. Also the monster children of Miseryville are told horrible scary bedtime stories about ponies being horrible creatures that no monster wants to meet. The reason why there are sentient non ponies in Equestria, and sentient non monsters in Miseryville is because those creatures once all lived together in the land that is now Equestria and Miseryville, but it was then split between the two families into a dual dimension.
There are two creatures from the land of Miseryville who made it to Equestia. One of them is Zecora, she was part of a zebra tribe who lived in a forest near Miseryville, but Lucius destroyed that part of the forest because the zebras weren't miserable. Zecora fled to the Abyss of nothingness, and soon found herself in the Everfree Forest, she stayed there because it reminded her of her original home. The other creature is Iron Will. He was a Miseryville monster who was sent to the Abyss of nothingness and found the other side. He denies the fact that he is a monster because he doesn't want to let it slip that he found the other land.
Oh also, Beezy knows the secret about ponies, which is why he likes them. This is actually the primary reason his father hates him.
- ...What?
- Another WMG with the same basic idea appears in the "Other" folder.
- Guess that explains all the Portal crossovers, seeing as they're the same 'verse.
- Ellen Mclain said in a recent interview she would love to do voice work for the show. A crossover with Half Life, Portal, or even Team Fortress 2 may be more likely than we think.
- This must happen. Considering Ellen is best known for her work as GLaDOS, a Portal reference would be most likely... GLADOS PONY, DO WANT!
- Off topic, but maybe Ellen could voice a villain in a future episode? She could even order around a band of mercenary ponies!
- This must happen. Considering Ellen is best known for her work as GLaDOS, a Portal reference would be most likely... GLADOS PONY, DO WANT!
- Pop Star is just the kind of place to have a sweet world like Equestria on it, just like Dream Land. Pop Star is orbited by its sun instead of the other way around. Celestia moves this sun as there should be no need to move a sun if it orbits the sun. Also, the way Marx got the sun and moon to fight was to get Celestia and Luna to fight, which would cause the sun and moon to do the same.
- In that case, Nightmare is almost certainly responsible for Luna's transformation into Nightmare Moon.
- After populating this new world with myriad fantastic creatures and giving it over to three races of pony, he created a fourth race known as alicorns to give the power of the fal'Cie. Cutie Marks are tamer, more varied l'Cie brands that denote the pony's special talent as a Focus, and is only fullfilled to turn that pony to crystal at the time of the pony's death or when they achieve their magnum opus. Canterlot castle has an enormous gallery dedicated to such ponies if their families wish for them to be kept safe.
- The Sha on Azeroth are Equestria's version of disharmony and chaos, with Y'shaarj being Azeroth's Discord. Except the Elements defeated him and split him into pieces in this world. We have the 'Elements' of Hope, Wisdom, Strength, and Fortitude, not to mention Shaohao, as the possible Element of Pride (GOOD Pride, not "Sha'd" Pride). When someone is Sha'd, they also turn grey, just like what happens to Discorded ponies. Only REALLY powerful magic or harmony/friendship can stop the Sha'ing.
- Small and ponylike
- Rainbow-colored
- Occasional development of horns and wings
- Moderately intelligent
Both countries are temperate and rainy, with mixed climates and a lot of limestone geology (caves and waterfalls). The Everfree Forest is a center of wild magic not unlike the Lost Woods; there are abundant gems (Hyrule used them as its ordinary currency), volcanoes, swamps in the east and southeast, a northern band of mountains, and a desert in the southwest. Monsters are common in both settings, and they're quite often the same monsters: the first season of MLP:FIM had what were recognizably the dog-Moblins of the late Downfall Timeline, while Breath of the Wild brought back Lynels after an absence of 26 years, and gave them Tirek's moveset. The movie adds pig-Moblins, River Zoras, and Lizalfos.
Also, Sunset Shimmer is a red-haired aristocratic wizard-adventurer who threw away a comfortable but unsatisfying life, traveled into another world, stole an ancient magical artifact, and transformed into a terrifying demon. She's smug and smirky in victory, she gets along scarily well with wizards, and her special talent is [being a Gerudo] [1]◊.
It's a good thing Equestria believes in converting their enemies instead of trying to run swords through their chests or something!
- Celestia is a entity similar to an angel or Poitreene.
- Discord is a god, that's also a complete asshole, like Drazil.
- Queen Chrysalis is a demon, and all of the changelings are ponies that she turned into demons like how Zenon turns humans into demons.
- King Sombra is a unicorn that became a demon like Prier did, except he fully embraced his evil side, assuming that he had a good side to begin with.
- Which edition? Of course Fluttershy and Pinkie are likely NPC classes, having never demonstrated any kind of combat ability whatsoever (The Stare being a 'spell like ability' of course). Though the idea of Pinkie being a Sorcerer or Bard and simply hiding her awesome power is an attractive one...
- 3rd or 4th, 3rd for the amusing contrast between My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and dungeonpunk, 4th for the streamlined aesthetic matching the clean bright lines of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Twilight Sparkle is a shoe-in for Wizard, Pinkie definitely seems to be a Bard (she does pull off a Pied Piper move and is always singing and dancing), I'd peg Applebloom as a Ranger for the rough 'n tumble nature affinity... Rainbow Dash is either a Rogue (for speedy tricksiness) or a Monk (for sheer speed... though I've yet to see how 4e handles monks)... Fluttershy strikes me as a Paladin, actually, with an emphasis on the laying-on-of-hands gentleness tempered with the Righteous Fires of Charisma allowing her to stare down evil beings. Rarity, not sure.
- Fluttershy strikes me as a 4th edition invoker. Lightly armored servant of the gods, raining down holy fire at range. It is after all theorised that Fluttershy's meekness is due to her special power being extremely aggressive in nature. Rarity... 4th edition bard maybe? Lots of flashiness and illusions backing up martial ability, and they actually get the power "Words of Friendship". I'm still with Pinkie as a sorcerer, just because it would annoy Twilight.
- Fluttershy strikes me more as a Druid. Considering her ability with animals, but also that she's able to convince non-animals to do her will (indicating the Wild Empathy ability). She's also got a good Fort save, indicated when she resisted the cockatrice's stare. And let us not forget Angel, her animal companion! She hasn't shown any ability to change shape, but it's possible she's taken an option from a sourcebook that eschews that ability in favor of more focus to animal control.
- For some reason I'm imagining Rainbow Dash as a Paladin. Rarity is a Bard, Fluttershy's a Druid or Cleric with the Animal domain, Applejack is a Ranger, and Twilight Sparkle is obvious. As for Pinky Pie, she's a Munchkin.
- Its more Twilight Sparkle as a Wizard, Pinkie Pie is a Bard, Rarity is a Rogue, Applejack is a Ranger, Fluttershy is a Druid, and Rainbow Dash is a Barbarian. (Remember that Barbarians are the only base class other than Monks to get a significant movement boost, and that Rainbow Dash's alignment totally starts with "Chaotic", not "Lawful".)
- Well, we know what they'd be in Final Fantasy.
- I'm just going to leave this here.
- And I'm just going to leave this over here.
- Also in both settings, there are "elements" composed of abstract concepts - the Elements of Harmony in one case, and the Greater Elementals in the other.
- Lorwyn has no oceans, and as of yet there have been no references to oceans in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic either - in fact, we have seen a squid living in a lake, and a sea-serpent in a river.
- ...nor have there been references to horses in Lorwyn-Shadowmoor. But there have been several races (changelings, hobgoblins, selkies, etc.) going into / coming out of hiding when the plane transforms, so post-Shadowmoor ponies isn't too far of a stretch.
- Another hint: Lorwyn/Shadowmoor and Equestria both have Changelings.
- Lorwyn has no oceans, and as of yet there have been no references to oceans in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic either - in fact, we have seen a squid living in a lake, and a sea-serpent in a river.
- It's also a nice coincidence that Celestia's cutie mark looks exactly like the white Mana symbol.
- It would be likely that Equestria would be its own plane in the "Duels of the Planeswalkers" story arc, especially since g4 came out quite some time after Lorwyn. Equestria has a nice bit of its own lore, lots of magic fused with technology, a plethora of creature types which are congruent with the previous blocks, and a surprising openness to the concept of mana colors. It is even more useful that the standard blocks feature artifact colors, making the Elements of Harmony excellent color splashes. It's only a matter of time before a Planeswalker totally stumbles across it in their journeys.
- Considering Hasbro owns the rights to both the My Little Pony and the Wizards of the Coast franchises, it's not entirely out-the-window that it could *possibly* happen. It would be funny to see the reactions of MTG veterans if an Equestria block was released. It would be the nuttiest thing since Unglued and Unhinged.
- I so want to see this happen in the 2013/14 block!
- While this is probably not going to happen as a direct crossover, Mark Rosewater did admit that the three dual-colored Angel legends from Avacyn Restored were Shout-Outs to the three Powerpuff Girls, so a similarly subtle shout-out to My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is quite possible.
- Considering Hasbro owns the rights to both the My Little Pony and the Wizards of the Coast franchises, it's not entirely out-the-window that it could *possibly* happen. It would be funny to see the reactions of MTG veterans if an Equestria block was released. It would be the nuttiest thing since Unglued and Unhinged.
Nurgle, as you know, is the god of despair and disease, but he also represents other things like parental love, tolerance, and, of course, friendship. Yep. Thing is, all of the Equestia is completely overtaken by some kind of mind-blowing disease that either twists the surrounding into the cute forms or forces the viewer to percieve the world that way - in fact, the My Little Pony world may be a toxic, diseased, disfigured hell beyond imagining. Furthermore... Let's see the antagonists - they are pretty much Lighter and Softer Chaos Gods. Discord is the most obvious, being chaotic, unpredictable and insane (Tzeentch); Windigos (I know about them from TV Tropes only so I may be wrong) are feeding on hatred and fighting - Khorne, eh? Nightmare Moon... Well, I would consider her Slaanesh since she's female, she has purple coloration, she tempts Rainbow Dash with sin of Pride, etc.
This user is now officially insane.
Eventually, the pony project was deemed a failure because of a general lack of combat capability. The ponies proved incapable of conquering the Everfree Forest (the border of engineered, safe world the Brain Boyz made to breed their warrior race). The project was abandoned and the experience was used to further refine the ork concept.
I'm partially willing to add in the notion that Big Macintosh is a prototype Nob.
- I'm pretty sure the Eldar were created by the same race as the Orkz. Which could explain the unicorns and their innate psyker talents.
- An agent (Discord) was posted there but he went insane so two other agents (Celestia and Luna) were sent to clean up the mess, they were made immortal so they could keep the ponies safely on this planet because they discovered the back up (Elements of Harmony) was so strong that the precursor race could not beat them.
- "Listen up. Humies are weak because they spend all their time fighting each other. Humies are always arguing over who does what because they dont have any cutie markz to tell them what their jobs are. And they always fight over who's in charge because they don't have any alicorns to tell them what to do. And that's why being pony is best."
- Discord: this one is easy. Tricky, manipulative, able to alter reality, dislikes staticness, strives for change - he's obviously an avatar of Tzeentch.
- Chrysalis: this one is also pretty easy. She and Changelings are all about "love", which could extend to "lust", in other words she must be an envoy of Slaanesh.
- King Sombra: the most warlike and "evil for the sake of evil" of the four, he's probably related to Khorne.
- Nightmare Moon: less obvious, but when you think about it, eternal night is a pretty good metaphor for Despair - one of Nurgle's shticks, furthermore with no sunlight Equestria would become a sickly, slowly dying world.
- King Sombra and Nightmare Moon should be reversed. King Sombra spreads despair, while Nightmare Moon has actively attacked and blasted people.
- But Nightmare Moon only attacked to defend herself, not out of aggressivity. In fact, she spends most the episode running from battle. Sombra, on the other hand, would probably be more than willing to extend his empire. Also, he attempts to kill Spike. While they both spread despair, Sombra seems more aggressive.
- King Sombra and Nightmare Moon should be reversed. King Sombra spreads despair, while Nightmare Moon has actively attacked and blasted people.
- As a result of the experiments all Equestrians are psychic to some degree, though generally only unicorns can perform any powers other than basic Soma.
- Cutie marks are their version of Stigmas.
- Cutie mark failure insanity syndrome is a Lighter and Softer form of Urge.
- The reason the ponies need to micromanage every aspect of the environment is because the terraforming machinery is failing.
- Its similar to the Crystal Spheres, its bigger than a few miles in diameter.
- The whole area has a predilection for ponies going crazy and mania -is- associated with insanity.
- It has some way of generating its own mania, so the ponies never need to leave it to steal.
- Probable suspects are the Elements of Harmony. They channel the ambient friendliness and change that into mania.
- Wonders are 0 size "spells."
Celestia is the True Fae that primarily defines the place. All her "little ponies" are changelings (mostly Broadback Beasts, of course) that have completely forgotten about the real world. Celestia has them manually manipulate their environment because how the hell would I know, it's an Other we're talking about.
Luna, Discord, and Chrysalis are other Gentry. Celestia and Luna apparently have some sort of agreement between them that allows them to co-exist without having to kill each other. Both Discord and Chrysalis actively attempted to take over Celestia's turf, Discord by himself and Chrysalis by bringing in an army of her own changelings.
Oh, and the Everfree Forest? That's the Hedge. Places like Zecora's hut and the ruined castle are located in Hollows there.
- Let's see here, both have been redeemed once (Discord's only friend he ever had is Fluttershy), represent disorder and chaos, and can never be truly defeated.
- It's probably somewhere in the Dreamlands though.
- So the Princesses are probably Great Ones.
- Oh, and an omnicidal god locked away for a thousand years, sounds familiar, don't it?
- Considering that the omnicidal god in question was released when the stars were right? Yes.
- And Discord, one of the thousand masks of Nyarlathoetep.
- And Chrysalis is either Shub-Niggurath herself or one of her offsprings.
This explains so much:
- The cosmic naming convention used for the princesses and the general astrological motifs ("From the dark stars They came ere pony was born, unseen and loathsome They descended to primal earth." "They had, indeed, come themselves from the stars, and brought their images with them". etc.).
- Why Celestia and Luna look so different from their subjects (they're pure-bred Old Ones; the ponies are crossbreeds with some manner of native life on their planet, like Wilbur Whateley from The Dunwich Horror).
- Why Cthulhu!Luna was so Easily Forgiven; Yog-Sothoth!Celestia didn't care about what she did, simply that she tried it before the proper time ("She shall beckon unto the Old Ones when the stars mark the time of Their coming; for Yog-sothoth is the Gate through which Those of the Void will re-enter. Yog-sothoth knowest the mazes of of time, for all time is one unto her. She knowest where the Old Ones came forth in time along long past and where They shall come forth again when the cycle returneth.")
- The multiplicity of pony sub-breeds ("They're semblance can no pony know, saving only in the features of those They have begotten on ponykind; and of those there are many sorts").
- The ponies actively changing the seasons and grooming the natural world ("The wind gibbers with Their voices, and the earth mutters with Their consciousness. They bend the forest and crush the city, yet may not forest or city behold the hand that smites").
- Pinky Pie's fourth dimensional powers are just her heritage manifesting particularly strongly ("Not in the spaces we know, but between them, they walk serene and primal, undimensioned and to us unseen"); as is her accompanying madness.
- The very Anarchic Order of the show, as our mortal concepts of "sequence" mean nothing in a world touched by the hideous influence of Yog-Sothoth!Celestia and Cthulhu!Luna ("a haunted, accursed realm where life and death, space and time, have made black and blasphemous alliances").
- In light of this interpretation, I no longer want to give Fluttershy a great big hug.Okay, I still do.
- The citizens of the Empire are a multi-species brew made up from almost any humanoid shape to thing that flies, crawl, morphs, floats and even exists and not exist at the same time.
- Like Equestria the Empire, Federation and Commonwealth have shown that their massive space fleets and even everyday apliances are Magitek.
This is where Equestria began; a bunch of talking, but otherwise normal horses on an island. Unicorns and pegasi arose later; random mutations caused by the islands innate magic. Over time, ponies gained their signiture appearance and bright colors.
- Taking this further, the Houyhnhnms were able to take enormous leaps and bounds in both technological, sociological, and moral concepts thanks to the magic coming back. The Yahoo could not cope.
- Alternatively, the Yahoos were not wiped out, but changed with the world too. They developed better digging skills, to more easily find their precious gems, and eventually developed into the Diamond Dogs.
- Gulliver just ran into a clan of primitive Earth ponies during his stay, never encountering unicorns or pegasi, as this was long before the three groups united. In fact, perhaps Houyhnhnms interbreeding with unicorns and pegasi may have been what brought the magic back (giving them colorful fur and cutie marks), and Earth ponies today are their direct descendants.
- There's a huge time gap between Gen 3 and Gen 4, explaining the lack of people, and the appearance change. People like Megan are castaways.
- Not only that, but their Gods also represent stellar objects, like the Sun, Moon, and the Stars.
The Shadow's fast-time nature means he eventually gets lonely, and he founds a little dynasty. After taking two of his descendants back to the Courts for Logrus training, they have a little falling out, and Discord gets pwnied. Their little rebellion slips through the cracks with the political situations as they are in Amber and the Courts; left without direction, the sisters rule together until a dispute leaves Nightmare Moon exactly where her name implies, and during the period of rebuilding that follows the newly crowned king of Chaos Merlin stops by. Since he and Random have the Amber/Chaos conflict under control he again has time for side projects, and he had to see the Shadow of friendly talking technicolor ponies to believe it. He and Celestia get on just fine, and he agrees to let her rule Equestria autonomously as a protectorate of the Courts of Chaos, in exchange for the chance to study the warped properties of the Shadow, such as how the local conditions caused the Chaos and Amber blood to stratify into three distinct pony races.
During one of his visits he meets an orphaned earth-type pony he adopts as his mascot, dragging her along on his travels through Shadow; this of course is Pinky Pie. On an ill fated visit to Amber she begins walking the Pattern, and of course is obliged to complete it; to Merlin's surprise she's able to pull it off, but though she survives, her psyche is damaged and she's afflicted with a bleak, terrible depression. Unable to help her any other way, Merlin attempts the desperate kill-or-cure of having her also walk the Logrus. It works, but in addition to the inevitable Logrus-madness that afflicts all it's masters, Pinkey Pie's memories are fractured. Even when she's recuperated and returned to Equestria, she remembers her old friend Merlin as her beloved Granny Pie, the period after walking the Pattern as her time on the rock farm, and the period after walking the Logrus not well at all. Back in Equestria she's closely monitored by Celestia and her finest physicians. It's found that she has no conscious memory of her abilities to traverse Shadows or manipulate the Logrus, and after she's deemed competent to function in society she's placed with Mr. and Mrs. Cake in a sort of work home situation.
However! She has not in fact lost these abilities, she simply uses them reflexively and without consideration that everyone else can't perform the same feats. Offscreen teleportation? Short Hell-rides through convergent Shadows. Pulling party supplies from Hammerspace? No, just from alternate Shadows with tendrils of Logrus. She's one of the more powerful beings on Equestria, rivaling Celestia and Luna in that the latter two have never walked the Pattern and can't move across Shadows of their own accord. However Pinky Pie uses these masteries for such mundane purposes that it takes a while for reports off odd events to reach Princess Celestia; she, taking advantage of coincidental circumstances, arranges for her protege Twilight Sparkle (who possesses Endurance to rival that of the legendary Corwin and the potential to be the greatest master of their Shadow's brand of Sorcery, ever) to monitor the situation. Oh, and the inhabitants of Equestria were pretty badass even before the Unicorn and Chaos Lords starting sleeping with them; their most famous native was a little horsey by the name of Morgenstern! In conclusion, I look forward to reading the campaign logs of the first sessions of the My Little Pony Diceless Role-playing Game.
- Unicorns are...well, unicorns, mostly Plainsdwellers (hence the descriptive names). Earth ponies are wild daya. As a result of interbreeding between pony kinds, daya now have the lifespan of unicorns (and occasionally give birth to unicorn and pegasus foals, as we've seen) and actually have them outmatched for durability.
- As for unicorns, it's now sufficiently rare for them to have goatees that Star Swirl's earned him an epithet.
- The difficult ones to explain would be the pegasi, really...and they're what happened when daya took up with the weird hybrid descendants of Lell and Illishar (and similar pairings).
- It's anyone's guess whether or not there are still any hippogriffs. They were, for some misbegotten reason, more fertile with daya than with either of their parent species or with each other (although pegasi, thankfully, dodged that bullet). Which leads us to...
- Cerapters like the princesses, who have the attributes and abilities of all three kinds (not just unicorn and pegasus, as commonly believed) and may well be the ultimate outcome of pony-kind—well, at least, before ponies officially transcend, anyway. They almost invariably have metamorphosed into that form from from exceptional unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies (Cadance—who seems to have been one at least since she was a filly—is not only an anomaly, but less a cerapter proper than a pegasus who was born with a properly developed horn bud). Most are scions of the line of Halla. There are never more than a few of them at a time, and most are chessmasters to some degree. There's likely a connection between cerapters and the now long-lost Mere of the Moon—which has certainly absorbed all kinds of weird new magic since then—but no one would be likely to be able to confirm that except the cerapters themselves. And they're not telling.
- At least one of the Mane Six (guess who!) is herself a direct descendant of Halla.
- Cutie marks are connected to truenames somehow.
- Dragons and wyverns have evolved and/or mutated into several different species each. While the gryphons are clearly still out there, they mostly stay out of ponies' way nowadays. (The hybridization that resulted in the existence of the pegasi has long since been dismissed as mere vulgar speculation.)
- Humans and pans are probably on a different continent, or simply far enough away that they've never crossed paths with the ponies. Or this may be an alternate world in which they died out or simply never existed.
- Through the magic of the Elements of Harmony the Princesses have sealed the more dangerous aspects of Fae from their domain. This has the side effect of cutting them off from both Winter and Summer forcing them to micromanage their own ecology through an artificial Day/Night cycle maintained by the Princesses, Pegasi controlled weather and manned season changing.
- Secretly, the STEED OF TIME and SEER OF DERP are still around...
- Alternative interpretation, based on the perceived necessity for an Heir, a Hero of Time, and a Hero of Space in each session (to properly create paradox clones and generate the Beat Mesa and Forge):
- Princess Celestia - Heir of Time
- Princess Luna - Queen of Space
- Discord - Bard of Chaos (hey, if Nepeta can break the five-words-per-land rule to have LoLCaT, Discord can be the Hero of an affinity with two syllables.)
- God-Tier players from a previous session. They won and successfully entered their universe. And that's how Equestria was made!! Discord entered the new universe at a point in time further in its past than the Princesses, and the solitude drove him further off the deep end he'd been teetering on ever since being horrifically twisted by ascending to God Tier as the hero of Chaos... which is why when they found Equestria it was such a mess under his rule.)
- The ponies' homes (and the rest of Equestria) are NOT in danger of being destroyed by meteors. Celestia and Luna wield their considerable powers to deflect and harmlessly teleport meteors, pulling in ones with useful artifacts such as the command stations and the Frog Temple... and the mane six as foals. This will cool Applejack's objections to playing "this silly game o' Twilight's" as Sweet Apple Acres need not be abandoned when Applejack enters the Incipisphere: she can easily transportalize back to do her daily chores, and use alchemy to duplicate apples and apple trees by the thousands. (Just like John's dad apparently did with such things as shaving cream and pipe tobacco.)
- Lacking computers and similar technology, the Equestrian entry into the Medium will be even more different than the trolls' biotechnology-based SGRUB was: SPONY will take the form of a pair of spells, first cast by Twilight and Rarity to help Twilight enter the Medium, then refined into precast scrolls to allow the non-unicorns to pair up as client and server partners.
- The client-server architecture is as follows:
- Twilight <== Rarity <== Applejack <== Rainbow Dash <== Fluttershy <== Pinkie Pie <== Twilight
- Twilight Sparkle: the Heir of Light
- Land: of Light and Shade (an unusual world, it rotates to give a 6-hour day/night cycle with the light from Skaia, making building upward a challenge for Rarity because of the different forces at play on the structure compared to the other, non-rotating worlds in the Medium.)
- Fetch Modus: Array. Sensible, organized, allows her to retrieve whatever she needs with a minimum of fuss.
- Rarity: the Sylph of Hope
- Land: of Crystal and Textiles (one challenge she faces is leaving her world behind long enough to get quests done elsewhere, as many things she likes are quite obviously in abundance)
- Fetch Modus: Makeover. Always retrieves the current most beautiful item in her Sylladex—or the one in most desperate need of prettifying.
- Applejack: the Knight of Life
- Land: of Forest and Rain (much of Sweet Apple Acres' orchard came with her, allowing her to continue her work even in the Medium)
- Fetch Modus: Heap. Sensibly, the most valuable item is always accessible at the root node.
- Rainbow Dash: the Rogue of Time (and she already has the shades 8) )
- Land: of Sand and Glass (with many hourglasses; Dash's time machine appears◊ as two spinning cross-shaped double hourglasses supported by a stone bearing a resemblance to Greek column tops—operable with her wings, naturally)
- Fetch Modus: Two-Way Iterator. Allows her to move back and forth through the linked list with great speed, accessing any item in linear time, while still being able to weaponize her sylladex, ejecting only the exact item she wants to by selecting just the right slot to collide with.
- Fluttershy: the Maid of Heart
- Land: of Dew and Tea (gradually having more and more adorable creatures she brought over from LoFaR and elsewhere. Also, it goes without saying that she would be even MORE nonaggressive towards the underlings than Tavros or Gamzee, and would use the Stare to quell any aggression from them.)
- Fetch Modus: Politeness. Dispenses the right item when asked with "Please."
- Pinkie Pie: the Bard of Space
- Land: of Mirth and Frogs (Pinkie got the session Forge from the mountain where the dragon in "Dragonshy" was napping, via shenanigans. When asked how she got it to move to the Medium when it was so far away from Sugarcube Corner, she just giggles.)
- Fetch Modus: Miracle. (C'mon, you knew it had to be.)
- And the question of the eon: why would Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, knowing the mechanics of SPONY, allow the mane six to cast the spells and play the game, knowing that if they made a slip-up, ponies could die or homes be destroyed from the meteors? Answer: Because they wanted to see what a marvelous universe the new Elements of Harmony would create. ...Also, since Celestia already rescued them from the meteors, to not allow them to create their own paradox clones would just result in a doomed alternate timeline. Celestia, as the former hero of Time, would know this all too well.
- How would the ponies have Strife Specibi without hands when only two of them possess unicorn telekinesis? Easy: like Sollux and Equius, they don't need weapons when they have their natural abilities in Strife. The earth ponies have powerful kicks that would only get stronger as they increased in level, Rainbow Dash could use super speed to similar effect, the unicorns have their magic, and Fluttershy would use her animal communion and Stare to achieve quest objectives non-violently.
- Kernel(para)sprites:
- Twilight thinks the "prototyping" will probably just take a copy of the form of the object or entity thrown in, based on the description she reads within the spellbooks Celestia sent. To her horror, Spike disappears entirely, BECOMING the kernel. Fortunately, Spikesprite retains all of Spike's memory and personality and so for all intents and purposes IS still Spike.
- Rarity prototypes Opalescence quite by accident: Opal is getting a mite freaked out by all the weird furniture-moving Applejack is doing from afar, and jumps on Rarity's hindquarters with claws extended. Rarity throws her off almost reflexively, and the feline sails into the kernelsprite.
- Applejack, upon hearing that Spikesprite has been giving Twilight lots of useful information about the Medium, decides to prototype Winona in the hopes that her canine herding partner will be more eloquent afterward. Unfortunately, Winona still tends towards barks for communication—adequate for herding, not so much for communicating obscure concepts about the Incipisphere.
- Rainbow Dash would zoom around setting up everything for entry, and then, when she's just about to use her Cruxite Artifact, Twilight tells her she absolutely MUST put something in the kernel first, so she tosses Tank in and gets in the Medium in ten seconds flat.
- "Oh Angel... I really need to put something in the kernelsprite... it would be ever so nice if I could have a nice bunny to help me through the Medium... that is... if that's alright with you..."
- "So Pinkie Pie, looks like you already got your kernelsprite prototyped with Gummy..." "Is THAT what we were doing? I just threw Gummy a Weird Flashy Thing Party and wouldn't you know, he just moseyed right on in!"
- Hours in the future (but not many)...
- "Cutie Mark Crusader Incipisphere Explorers!" ...sneaking through one of the transportalizers. Inevitably, tragedy strikes all three, and since they do not have Quest Beds or dreamselves, the ponies desperately try prototyping as a way to bring them back to life, or at least existence.
- And so through post-Entry second-tier prototyping, Opalsprite would become Sweetiesprite, Winonasprite would become Applebloomsprite, and Scootasprite (formerly Tanksprite) would finally be able to help out her idol.
- And even though Chumhandles make no sense for a non-text-based communications spell, here they are anyway:
- crepuscularGodhead
- textileAugmentrix
- awkwardTaxonomist
- colorfulTrickster
- appliciousCollector
- gigglingGamer
- This is perfect. Congratulations.
- PCs
- Twilight Sparkle = Ben (The most thoughtful player in the role of a talented student from out of town)
- Pinkie Pie = Sally (Pinkie is the character the GM generates for Sally, whose imagination makes her character incredibly quirky)
- Fluttershy = Annie (Since Annie's the type to immerse herself in her character's role, why not?)
- Rainbow Dash = Jim (Hey, Jim's approach to gaming works well for Rainbow Dash)
- Applejack = Pete (Ever the Munchkin, Pete created a super-strong and resilient pony at the cost of the ability to fly or use magic)
- Rarity = Corey (Pretty much the odd one out in terms of PCs)
- NPCs
- Princess Celesta = Expy of Boss Nass (concerned with the Lost Orb of Phanastacoria or equivalent thereof)
- Princess Luna = Expy of Queen Amidala (has quirks tied with her great wisdom and popularity)
- Spike = Expy of Captain Panaka (tries to keep Twilight and her friends out of trouble)
- Discord = Expy of Sio Bibble (someone who two characters have disagreements over)
- Q had the choice between any mortal existence, unless the rules themselves were different in that universe. On a less relevant note, I like to think that the Q Continuum exists across the Star Trek multiverse.
- Humans were given pony avatars and physics was messed with so that they'll be even more useless as "freedom fighters" if any do manage to slip out. Cutie marks also help maintain the system's stability.
- Lyra Heartstrings's nervous system is imperfectly mapped to her avatar, hence her habit of human-like behaviour.
- Pinkie Pie can see the system's code. Hence her ability to break the fourth wall, her Pinkie Sense, and other abnormal abilities.
- The Elements of Harmony are backdoor security and hacking utilities.
- Celestia, Luna, and Spike are all A.I.s involved in maintaining the system (Spike was specifically designed to monitor Twilight). They couldn't have such long lifespans if they were the avatars of mortal humans. Like the Oracle, they seem to have developed some degree of affection and respect for their inmates.
- Discord is a rogue A.I. that was originally involved with creating the underlying simulation (hence his powerful "root access" that Celestia can't override on her own).
- In such a setting, Discord might actually be an A.I. on the humans' side: the reason he's so obsessed with chaos is he's trying to break the simulation and the inmate's acceptance of it as reality enough to enable them to wake them up and free them.
- to the Ponies, Friendship Is Magic, and the Elements of Harmony work only among true friends in harmony. Kandrakar's magic works best when used by friends, and the origins of Will's power and link to it are revealed in the New Power Saga to come from the bounds with her friends and loved ones;
- Kandrakar's magic is bound to the number five (the Guardians are always five, when the Galahots asked for Kandrakar's help they sent five heroes, and so on), or at most 5+1 (the Guardians plus Orube), and the Elements of Harmony are 5+1 (Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, and Loyalty, with Friendship to link them all);
- the Sixth Element of Harmony, Friendship, is practically the same as the power of the Keeper of the Heart;
- both the Mane Six (bearers of the Elements of Harmony) and the current generation of Guardians had connections to each other before meeting (and the previous generation is implied to have been as well);
- The Mane Six' Cutie Marks are all linked to Rainbow Dash's first Sonic Rainboom.
- Halinor and Kadma were keeping tabs on all the Guardians long before they met each other (and it's possible they've actually met Hay Lin in person on some occasion thanks to their friendship with her grandmother). Also, Cornelia, Irma and Hay Lin (and Elyon) were a group long before Will and Taranee moved to Heatherfield, and for some reason Cornelia decided to take both Taranee and Will under her protection at first sight (or before: she hadn't even met Taranee before taking interest in her).
- And to add Orube as the +1, the Guardians had met her teacher Luba long before Orube.
- Not unlikely that the walls between universes are very thin there and often things may slip through. A human dimension is in spitting distance, a or the Doctor stranded himself/has vacation there, Q is doing his usual routine of dastardly plots, the Lutece twins have been seen. And that is not even counting the comics. They basically prove that this world exist to some degree in the Dr Who universe, as in the future cyberman(pony) are seen.
- The anachronistic technology in the setting is because Equestria is really Earth, after humanity discovered magic and wiped itself out, as evinced by the buried tire in Hearts and Hooves Day. The various advanced bits of technology are recovered human technology, which is in advance of standard pony technology.