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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)
Because pony physics are a bit weird, guesses will creep up.
- Also explains why repeatedly stomping on a cloud causes it to dump its water onto whatever is below it.
- This also explains how Rainbow Dash was able to break her friends' fall with a compressed cloud in "Wonderbolts Academy", unless you believe that Twilight cast the cloudwalking spell on them again.
- Jossed, as Discord has been reformed and weather ponies are still seen managing clouds.
- Not that they'd need fossil fuels, since they DO have access to everything they need to generate electricity. They have windmills and water turbines, and it's not hard to imagine that solar panels exist. Unicorns have been seen using their magic to power machines. Organic waste can also serve as a fuel source. Even if fossil fuels did exist, there are enough alternatives in place to make drilling for them pointless.
- If the world is assumed to be relatively young, created by magic or gods sometime in the last million years, there are no fossil fuels to find. The ecosystem hasn't been around long enough to make any.
- That's kind of mixing your paradigms. If the world was indeed spontaneously created ex nihilo at some point, there's no reason it couldn't have come with fossil fuel depots (or functional analogs if one wants to quibble about the definition of "fossil fuel") already included.
- Jossed. In "MMMystery on the Friendship Express", the conductor is shown shoveling coal (which is mentioned in the dialogue as, indeed, being coal).
- Equestria could still be very young. "fossil" (carbon based) fuels can be formed very rapidly, under the right circumstances. Coal, for instance, can be created in a laboratory setting, as can diamonds — it just takes heat and pressure. Which may also be why diamonds are valuable — other gemstones are ridiculously plentiful, yet diamonds are referred to as extremely valuable (Best Night Ever, Return of Harmony) — presumably other gemstones grow due to magic, like crystals, but diamonds, being pure pressurized carbon, do not.
- There is also the matter of the internal-combustion-engine powered sewing machines that Applejack comes up with in Apple Family Reunion. However, this is easily explained by the fact that small, high-rev engines can run on other volatile liquids than gasoline. such as, say, ALCOHOL Likewise, larger Diesel engines can be made to run on vegetable oils: current human society uses petroleum because, for the moment, it's easier to get and more energy-dense. (such was not the case even in modern human civilization: when coal-fired steam engines ruled the rails, it's because coal was easier to get and prepare for use than oil.)
- Could it have been charcoal?
- Equestria could still be very young. "fossil" (carbon based) fuels can be formed very rapidly, under the right circumstances. Coal, for instance, can be created in a laboratory setting, as can diamonds — it just takes heat and pressure. Which may also be why diamonds are valuable — other gemstones are ridiculously plentiful, yet diamonds are referred to as extremely valuable (Best Night Ever, Return of Harmony) — presumably other gemstones grow due to magic, like crystals, but diamonds, being pure pressurized carbon, do not.
- A slightly more specific explanation could be that some types of gems can harness ambient elemental energies in the magical aether; in other words, a Fire Ruby can be used to make actual fire. There could also exist Water Sapphires, Wind Emeralds, Shadow Amethysts, and for straight-up power supplies, Lightning Topaz.
- Well, they do have video games as of "Hearts and Hooves Day".
- PS. After watching bits of Return to Harmony, more stained glass windows seem to suggest a heliocentric orbit. If the Equestrian universe is in fact heliocentric, this ultimately means that Celestia and Luna are rotating the Earth on it's axis, instead of moving the sun/moon. Alternatively, Celestia and Luna's jobs are to keep Earth from crashing into the sun (Celestia) and the keep the moon from crashing into Earth (Luna).
- Raises the question, though, why knowledge of what the princesses actually do doesn't seem to be more widespread. Why, given the state of astronomy in the setting (with our own Twilight Sparkle being an astronomy nerd not above lecturing her friends for their educational benefit herself), is the old "their magic raises the sun and the moon" story still around and apparently unchallenged if that's not in fact what happens? (Sure, under another regime I could easily see that sort of knowledge getting suppressed if it's inconvenient to the rulers. Neither princess strikes me as the type to do that here, though, especially when whatever role it is that they're playing in maintaining the day/night cycle clearly is vital and thus arguably something they'd have reason to be proud of...)
- I think that this is merely linguistic convention. We must not forget that we ourselves say that the sun “rises” even though we know that this is not true. It should also be noted that the moon does indeed move.
- Assuming the window displays a heliocentric system requires quite a stretch and a good dose of artistic license to boot. At best it resembles an abstract portrayal of the earth and sun and other heavenly bodies.
- Perhaps the orbital mechanics of their solar system would not function with an outside force-from Princess Celestia and Luna, or even the Elements of Harmony. Possibly due to gravity wells in all the wrong places.
- What does "gravity wells in all the wrong places" even mean, exactly?
- There is a serious issue with this, namely the scene in "Twilight's Kingdom" where Twilight has to raise the sun herself, and the sun is visibly wobbling as she does so. Now, let's assume that physics in Equestria, including gravity and inertia, work as they do in our world except when shown or stated not to. The problem is what would have to happen to make the sun "wobble" in the sky like that: if the sun is not moving and only the planet is, then the planet would have to be the one jerking back and forth as Twilight works her magic. Most of these guesses (besides this one specifically, I've seen this idea tossed around on several occasions in other fandom websites) boil down to hypothesizing that the Equestrian system works like our solar system, so let's use that as a model: the Earth rotates at a speed of over a thousand miles per hour at the equator, slowing down as you approach the poles (we don't feel the speed because everything on the planet, including the atmosphere and oceans, is moving in the same direction at the same speed). If you just rotated the planet in the other direction (which is what would make the sun "move" directly east), then everything on the world's surface would still be moving west at the same speed as before. This would mean that a) everything less firmly rooted than a typical bunker would be violently hurled west at speeds of hundreds to thousands of miles per hour; b) the entire planet's surface would be scoured by winds blowing at the same enormous speeds; and c) the oceans would literally slosh over their western shores like the water in bathtub being jerked to the side. If the planet is also spasming back and forth in random directions, all this would be compounded by the random and sudden changes in direction of movement. Obviously, nothing of the sort happened.
TL;DR, in a heliocentric model, the sun jerking back and forth in the sky would require the planet to itself jerk back and forth, which due to speeds required to make a planet the size of Earth rotate fully on itself every 24 hours and the law of inertia would in turn mean that everything on the planet itself would be hurled in random directions at unimaginable speeds and/or thrown into outer space.
When comparing theories, the one that relies on the fewest unfounded assumptions is the likeliest to be true. In order for Equestria's system to be heliocentric, we need to assume:- a) That the canon, as presented in the show itself, is factually wrong. Basically, that whenever canon materials have said that Luna and Celestia raise the sun, said canon materials have not been telling the truth about how the world of MLP works.
- b) That Celestia and Luna are either flat-out lying about how their powers worknote or fundamentally do not understand how their own powers, which Celestia at least has been using daily for a millennium, work, despite being well-informed about magic otherwise.
- c) That Twilight either lied about her own experience in raising the sunnote or also fundamentally did not understand what her magic did, despite she too being very well-informed about magic otherwise.
- And d) that there was some method for suppressing inertia while the planet was being moved or that inertia simply did not apply in this situation, despite neither option being stated, showed, hinted at or implied in any way.
- By contrast, the geocentric model where the planet sits still in the middle and the sun and moon are moved around it simply requires the assumption that what the show has stated to be true is true.
A number of theories have been proposed:
- Gems and rocks from the rock farm are actually some sort of plant, fungus or some unheard of mineral-based organism similar to the two.
- Mined ores absorb magic present in the atmosphere to gain mass: Based on this Ask Tumblr post.
- Gems are a solidified form of magical energy (or "mana") that accumulate overtime to form jewels and gems.
- Gems have properties similar to Tiberium and convert soil and rock around them into more of themselves.
- This strange property was caused by artificial means a very long time ago. Either by accident or on purpose.
- Gems can be 'farmed,' but only by Earth Ponies, everyone else has to mine them the old fashioned way.
- Gems and rocks grow from minerals and elements accumulating as a natural magical process.
- This occurs more abundantly in some areas (like the spot where Rarity goes gem mining) than in others — perhaps the magic is stronger there, or upwellings of water or magma bring more minerals to fuel growth. Earth pony magic can control and direct this process to make harvesting desired minerals or rocks more efficient or gainful, hence rock farms.
- As a further theory, the reason rock farms don't grow gems is either a) large, pure gems require more energy or materials to grow than rocks do, meaning they're not cost-effective to cultivate, or b) earth pony rock farmers just don't feel like farming gems with no practical use when they could be growing useful ores and building stone.
- A bit of evidence for this being a natural process is the existence of a large species of gem-eaters, the dragons. Logically, they would have to have access to naturally occurring, self-replenishing sources of gems — they have to keep themselves fed somehow, and given what we've seen of them it's... unlikely... that enough of them are peaceful farmers to supply an entire species of house-sized reptiles with food. Obviously they can steal from the ponies, but they would still have had to eat before ponies developed rock farming.
- With the existence of the Crystal Empire and King Sombra, it's possible that all of the "gems" seen in the show (the ones Rarity and the Diamond Dogs dig for / the gems dragons eat) were all created by magic, which would explain their post-cut appearance. This might also explain the Pie's rock farm: by concentrating their magic into the ground they can alter the molecular structure of the rocks into something valuable a la Fullmetal Alchemist. As for why these magically created gems are burr din seemingly random place, the answer could be anything from natural poets of magic to leftovers from an long forgotten war.
- Larger brains? Look at their eyes, and then imagine those are spheres rather than simply two-dimensional camera lenses. They hardly have room to have a brain at all...
- So? Brain size and intelligence are largely independent.
- Or they could have tanks armed with water cannons.
- Alternatively, Zecora's cure amplified the effect of the Heart's Desire potion enough to power another wish. And since Applebloom now intensely desired to be rid of the fake cutie marks, that's what happened.
- Why would they be dead?
It's already a diverse place, but genetic engineering could result in more ponies with animalistic traits like the batponies. Born into generations over time. genetic engineering could also continue to blur the lines between the existing species in Equestria, gradually at first but, over time, it could happen.
As for the how, perhaps unicorns can use magic for gene delivery, and implant foreign DNA samples into the genomes of pony embryo. Copying the DNA sections from animals or whatever else and using the horn's magic to insert the DNA sample inside.
The base list, which I have come up with, goes as follows:
- The Elements of Harmony
- The Power of Love (i.e. Cadance + Shining Armour)
- Discord
- Nightmare Moon
- Celestia
- Luna
- Cadance
- Twilight Sparkle
- Shining Armour
- Rainbow Dash
- Fluttershy
- Rarity
- Applejack
- Pinkie Pie (sans Rule of Funny)
This is my logic for the above order. Feel free to comment/discuss:
- The Elements are canonically the most powerful force in Equestria. They trump literally anything, despite the fact that there are somewhat strict requirements to using them.
- The Power of Love comes next, as of the Royal Wedding. Chrysalis (the Changeling queen) is able to trump Celestia with siphoned love, and at the end Cadance's love was capable of overpowering the entirety of the Changeling hordes. It's as yet uncertain whether Love would trump the Elements, but I rank them lower because the Elements are more reliable, being as they are physical artifacts that can be gathered by the Mane 6 at any time, while Love is almost useless to anyone except Cadance and relies heavily on Rule of Drama for effect.
- Discord comes next. It's implied that he could easily overpower Celestia without the Elements on her side. He pretty much toys with the entire cast until the Elements come into play. At the moment, I would be willing to bet that The Power of Love would trump him, being almost equal with the Elements.
- Nightmare Moon is also capable of overpowering Celestia. However, I rank her lower than Discord because, well, Discord is the embodiment of Chaos, while NM is a corruption of Luna.
- Celestia comes next, naturally, followed by Luna. As the younger of the two, I estimate Luna to be less powerful; additionally, Nightmare Moon was only able to overpower Celestia because she received a power boost from whatever being corrupted her, thus implying that Luna was weaker to begin with. Cadance follows her two aunts/great-aunts/whatever, as she's far less powerful than them without The Power of Love.
- Placing one of the Ruling Sisters above the other is kind of dodgy. How much older Celestia is, and whether that means anything is unknown. The only time that they competed against each other, both were augmenting their power. The extent to which the Nightmare Moon state increased Luna power, if at all, was never made clear.
- Cadance really shouldn't be up with Celestia and Luna. Regardless of whether one believes that Celestia and Luna are especially powerful winged unicorns or that it takes time to reach that level of power, Cadance never displayed power above that of the average unicorn. She was defeated offscreen by Queen Chrysalis, was unable to even try to escape without Twilight's help, and Twilight did most of the work while they were escaping. She did use the Power of Love to help Shining Armor cast out the changelings, but Shining Armor is crazy powerful on his own, so that wasn't a solo showing. Outside of the very rare situations where somepony can be revitalized by the power of love, she should probably be down with the mane five, or in the swing tier with Spike.
- Twilight Sparkle's magical potential has been commented on repeatedly. I rank her higher than her brother because her special talent is Magic, and you can't get much broader than that, while Shining Armour's talent is supposedly defense or some such. Her brother is still the most powerful unicorn after his sister, however.
- Suggest placing "normal"note Queen Chrysalis here. She defeated Cadance without trouble, but used subterfuge to subvert Shining Armor instead of capturing him outright.
- Rainbow Dash's Rainboom has serious destructive potential, making her far more powerful than the other Mane 6. After her comes Fluttershy, who can easily keep pace when angry or upset. Rarity outclasses Applejack and Pinkie Pie on the basis of having magic, and Applejack has repeatedly demonstrated her physical aptitude. Pinkie comes last, but with a qualification; when Rule of Funny is in play, she demonstrates Reality Warper potential, and in this state could probably outclass the rest of the cast.
- Fluttershy usually only keeps up with Rainbow Dash when Dash wants her to. Fluttershy did manage to fly faster than Rainbow dash while under extreme duress, with extreme effort, and for a short period of time, but that was when Rainbow Dash was in an altered mental state, which likely had a detrimental effect on her abilities. She also has the stare, but she can't really use that on command. Fluttershy's lack of aggressiveness, combined with her inability or unwillingness to use her abilities on command makes her the weakest of the five under most circumstances. Rarity does have magic, but it is limited in scope and power, and she prefers to use her hooves in a serious fight, though she is a strong fighter like that. Applejack is, well, the jack, and is capable in a wide variety of situations with a number of athletic skills. Pinkie Pie, even without the Rule of Funny, is still very fast and agile, but more importantly, has access to and skill with a number of useful machines that she might have built herself. Finally, she has Pinkie Sense, which doesn't isn't just for laughs.
- Suggested Mane Five ordernote Rainbow Dash, Applejack/Raritynote , Pinkie Pienote , Fluttershy.
- Rarity does make an impressive show of magical prowess when everyone's cutie marks were switched around, seeming to succeed at what she was trying to do with weather control, her problem being that that's not what she was supposed to be doing.
- Fluttershy usually only keeps up with Rainbow Dash when Dash wants her to. Fluttershy did manage to fly faster than Rainbow dash while under extreme duress, with extreme effort, and for a short period of time, but that was when Rainbow Dash was in an altered mental state, which likely had a detrimental effect on her abilities. She also has the stare, but she can't really use that on command. Fluttershy's lack of aggressiveness, combined with her inability or unwillingness to use her abilities on command makes her the weakest of the five under most circumstances. Rarity does have magic, but it is limited in scope and power, and she prefers to use her hooves in a serious fight, though she is a strong fighter like that. Applejack is, well, the jack, and is capable in a wide variety of situations with a number of athletic skills. Pinkie Pie, even without the Rule of Funny, is still very fast and agile, but more importantly, has access to and skill with a number of useful machines that she might have built herself. Finally, she has Pinkie Sense, which doesn't isn't just for laughs.
- Swing Tier: This tier is for characters that switch massively between power levels. Spike fits here, as he usually has below average physical abilities and a weak Breath Weapon, with only his natural armor to balance it out,note but under the right circumstances can become an adult, shooting him up to around Rainbow Dash or even Shining Armor's level.
- Cadance would fit well here, due to the situational utility of her only strong ability. Chrysalis would also be a good fit, due to her explicitly variable power level.
After that, it's pretty much fair game.
- Yes, her name is Celestia.
- My views of Princess Celestia's interactions with the mane cast have always been tinted with the idea that she sees them at least partly as the Elements of Harmony. Rewatch the end of "Fall Weather Friends" with that view. Why would Celestia go to Ponyville to see the falling leaves, when she can do the same thing in Canterlot? Because Honesty and Loyalty are risking a falling out, making the Elements weaker.
- I thought her name was Lauren Faust.
- But she's no longer 'executive producer'.
- It's some unknown entity above Celestia, Luna, and even Discord.
- It's HARMONY.
- Rarity — Generosity — Give Too Much: The character is overwhelmed by her giving nature and proceeds to work herself to the bone in an effort to please every friend she has, regardless of her physical, mental, or emotional health.
- Applejack — Honesty — Unbroken Promises: The character tries too hard to keep every promise, oath, and agreement she has made, disregarding all other concerns.
- Pinkie Pie — Laughter — No One's Laughing With You: The character drops into a psychotic depression, firmly convinced that others don't actually care about her or the things she does to cheer them up.
- Fluttershy — Kindness — Overbearing Kindnesses: The character becomes driven solely by the need to care for others, and to have them care for her in return, to the point where she becomes a terrifying figure of smothering over-affection.
- Alternatively, Unwillingness to be Firm: The character is so obsessed with taking the best care of someone that they don't realize a rougher approach might actually be better in the long run.
- Rainbow Dash — Loyalty — Pain of Testing: The character, torn between two mutually exclusive loyalties, finds herself unable to make any decisions and flees her responsibilities.
- Twilight Sparkle — Magic — Lack of Understanding: The character, driven to frustration by her inability to understand the workings of something, becomes obsessed with unraveling its secrets.
- Rainbow Dash is the only one we haven't seen in-series. Her loyalty was tested in Giffon the Brush Off, but she kept her head. All her issues have related more to her strong personality than her element.
- Someone tell them they need to make an episode for that. I can't because I have no idea how to contact them.
- Rainbow Dash is the only one we haven't seen in-series. Her loyalty was tested in Giffon the Brush Off, but she kept her head. All her issues have related more to her strong personality than her element.
- And on all ponies, the magical field around them allows them to manipulate any object they can physically touch. At the Grand Gala, we see the pianist pony play the piano, without using fingers. During the parasprite infestation, Pinkie is able to play an accordion without actually touching the keys. And on numerous occasions, we've seen ponies pick things up using only a single hoof.
- So, ponies have tactile telekinesis? That...would actually make sense, especially when having the regular version is canonically already part of the unicorns' hat.
- Taking the above into account, this can be used to explain Pinkie Pie's "Pinkie sense". Remember, her special talent is making others happy. Most of her various twitches tell her of some sort of danger in the immediate future, and it's awfully hard for someone to be happy when they are hurt. The fact that her "earth sense" manifests as physical twitches is because, well, she's Pinkie Pie.
- Taking it further, Spike's egg was a fake, meaning Twilight hatching it was an Achievement In Ignorance.
- Indirectly supported through "The Secret of My Excess": knowledge on dragon growth and their greed is not well known (Twilight can't find it in books, and neither a pony doctor or a vet know about dragon biology, so she's forced to a more obscure fountain of information, Zecora), suggesting that knowledge of dragons is limited due to their rareness and/or longevity. If Celestia was handing out baby dragons for every student that passed through her school for the last thousand years a dragon, you'd think this would have been well covered by then. Twilight's performance was beyond unexpected.
- Also supported by "Dragon Quest": the teenage dragons act like a dragon raised by ponies is a strange, perhaps singular circumstance.
- Supported by Word of God: According to Faust, she used the test for specific fillies that she thought had unique magical abilities, and one which Twilight actually passed. Celestia would go on to raise and train Spike while Twilight continued in school, eventually giving Spike to her as her assistant.
- In "Dragon Quest", Twilight told Spike that he had been given to her as an egg, suggesting that Spike had been with her ever since. There's no evidence in the show that Spike was raised by Celestia.
- Suggesting no such thing. He could have been given to her as an egg, then taken away. You're grasping for straws.
- Perhaps Celestia did most of the actual work when it came to raising Spike, with Twilight playing with him and 'helping', like a child with their first pet.
- In "Dragon Quest", Twilight told Spike that he had been given to her as an egg, suggesting that Spike had been with her ever since. There's no evidence in the show that Spike was raised by Celestia.
- So it's like the test to determine the next Avatar?
- Confirmed by Word of God — it was only used as a test of magical power for a select few, Twilight being the first that passed it.
- Pinkie Pie still needed the balloon to sing her invitation to Rainbow Dash for Gummy's birthday. But that episode does not give hints of continuity, so it could go either way.
- Pinkie would've needed the balloon (or some other flight method) just to get to Dash's place.
- Jossed as of The Journal of the Two Sisters.
Also it seems that you don't need to be a certain breed to practice that breed's magic. Fluttershy appears to have the same sort of abilities that Earth Ponies might have (Influencing animals to do what she wants them to do, The Stare etc.) Perhaps it all depends on the correct mindset.
- Pegasus Magic probably makes it so that everything they build/create doesn't dissipate/fall through the clouds.
- We know "WHAT" it does, what isn't known is "HOW" they do it. Is it different from the other two methods of pony magic?
- Seems to work based on physical movement and effort. Weather control, from what we've seen, is based purely on physical ability and skill.
- Alternately, it could all be absolutely necessary, as a form of sympathetic magic. You perform one small act, and it affects the entire crop. Performing multiple of these things increases the crop, and they all affect it. Sure, Granny Smith doesn't NEED to get all the kids to hop around in bunny suits, but it still helps the zap apples grow in a way that only Earth ponies can really understand.
- If what's going on in S4 is any indication, this WMG seems pretty much confirmed. Rarity's suspected Key to the Box of Harmony is rainbow-coloured, and in another scene, rainbow-coloured light played a key element (haha) in getting Rarity to go back and try to set things right with her friends.
- That certainly explains why unicorns aren't all severely overweight; they seem to do the least amount of work physically. Pegasi and Earth Ponies are both extremely active races (most pegasi control the weather, thus fly a lot, thus are in movement, thus burn calories), and most Earth Ponies work on farms of some shape or form (Pinkie Pie however never seems to sit still so though she doesn't farm, she's still active). It doesn't hurt that ponies usually walk everywhere except to a different town and carriages seem to be more for fun and style than anything, unlike humans who drive cars everywhere.
- During the royal wedding Cadance and Shining Armor defeated the Changelings through The Power of Love
- And the CMC will wield the Fire Of Friendship
- "Hearth's Warming Eve" explicitly states that maintaining the diurnal cycle used to be the unicorns' collective job in the time before Celestia and Luna.
- Of course. Resisting targets get to roll the applicable save.
It's even in the name; a mirror cannot give a perfect reflection due to the fact that some light always gets absorbed, only in this case the Mirror Pool absorbs a few personal traits.
- Confirmed? Celestia's school would be near useless if only a few unicorns could actually learn different spells. Rarity has telekinesis(like all unicorns do) her gem finding spell(Shown to be her signature spell) and also seems to have an insta-dress spell, shown in Boast Busters. Trixie, the other unicron we have seen with more than one spell had telekinesis, light shows(which might have been her signature spell) and at least a spell to change colors.
- Unicorns probably can cast any spell (provided they are powerful enough to), it's just that most unicorns seem disinclined to learn spells outside their talent.
Why is it necessary to clear the snow after "winter" ends or create artificial rain clouds using water drawn from an artificial tornado? Why is so much more toil required just to create conditions amiable to growing food? The answer is that the unicorns draw upon this magical energy to cast their spells, and in doing so are consuming it faster than it can be regenerated, if such regeneration is even possible at all.
So, why don't the other ponies rise up and put a stop to the unicorns? I can think of three reasons. First, the unicorns, through their proxies the alicorns, control the pegasi, which are faster and generally more militaristic than earth ponies and can easily squash any signs of resistance, in exchange for plush floating cities and lots of down time when they aren't acting as enforcers. In a pinch, the unicorns could probably overpower the pegasi by forcing them out of the sky with their magic or at least protecting themselves with a magically-generated barrier. Second, the ruling class (i.e., the unicorns) are able to distract everybody else through a continuous cycle of frivolous events, such as bake-offs or galloping galas. Third, after a while, and by censoring proper magical science and measurement, it's easy to claim that the manual changing of weather and of the seasons is simply the way things are. Nobody remembers the way that things used to be.
Building on this; a simple glamour spell that changed your mark would not affect you, only high-level magic spells can affect a pony's talents through their cutie mark — like the unfinished Starswirl spell Twilight cast in "Magical Mystery Cure". It didn't simply switch around the pony's marks and elements, it changed their destiny — the cutie marks were just reflecting what they thought their destiny was based on innate knowledge of what their friends did (which is why, for example, Applejack was making dresses instead of running around looking for gems).
In "The Beginning Of The End", Twilight spends the bulk of the two-parter completely lacking confidence in herself regarding her upcoming role as Equestria's new ruler. When she attempts to free Apple Bloom from Sombra's brainwashing, she fails miserably. Fast forward to the end of the episode, after Discord gives a Rousing Speech, Twilight has enough power to effortlessly swat aside Sombra's attacks. This is a strong hint that Unicorn magic is also tied to that Unicorn's confidence.
We don't have as much evidence for the earth-oriented magic of Earth Ponies being affected the same way(at least not that I can recall), but with one having the confirmed connection and another one strongly implied, assuming three-for-three isn't too much of a stretch.
- Twilight's parents encouraged their daughter to practice magic.
- Rarity's parents taught her generosity, albeit in what seems to have been a sink-or-swim way that didn't require much generosity on their part (that being to dump Sweetie Belle on her even when it was inconvenient for her). Apart from Granny Apple, Applejack's family seems to be the type of family where all but the youngest generation are all about honesty and loyalty, with the exception of Granny Apple unless you take the certain point of view that, like the introductory episode with the cliff and as exemplified in the zap apples episode, "Honesty" should be interpreted as "Demanding And Receiving Blind Trust" (in which case, Applejack totally learned Honesty from her Granny). I don't know much about Dash or Fluttershy, especially since Friendship is Witchcraft is overshadowing what little I think I knew about Fluttershy's family.
- It's neither contrived nor coincidental: Recall that this universe's God-monarch walks among her people. Is it too farfetched to believe she had set up a Batman Gambit to save her little sister?
- Kindness + Generosity = Mercy/Forgiveness
- Honesty + Loyalty = Family
- Laughter + Magic = Joy
- Magic + Kindness = Abundance
- Generosity + Honesty = Guidance
- Laughter + Generosity = Playfulness
- Laughter + Honesty = Roasting?
- That's actually brilliant. Hope we see that in future episodes...
- Magic: Grants the wielder extraordinary magical aptitude, obviously.
- Honesty: Makes the wielder impossible to deceive or trick, possibly even through magical means.
- Granted Applejack was tricked by Discord, but then again Discord's effects around Sweet Apple Acres near the start of episode one of the two-parter shrugged off Twilight's Failsafe spell.
- Problem is, Applejack was tricked by Chrysalis when Twilight wasn't.
- How about this: rather than Honesty giving Applejack the ability to see through lies, it actually makes other people instantly trust her. Think about it — Twilight took quite a leap of faith in the pilot episode when Applejack told her to let go and fall off of the cliff; In Applebuck Season, everypony asks Applejack to help them out — and we can assume that they all knew about Applebuck Season and that Big Mac was injured, (It's a small town, after all) so they know she's already overworked; In The Last Roundup, Cherry Jubilee hires Applejack rather quickly, and Jubilee even gives her a room in her house. Everypony trusts Applejack, because the Element of Honesty gave her a kind of trustworthy aura.
- Kindness: Grants the wielder a sort of empathy with Nature, giving them a general understanding of how ponies and other animals work and letting them communicate. This may not work if done for selfish reasons, since you can't exactly be kind if you're selfish.
- Generosity: Allows the wielder to find and/or make things easier; as you can't give gifts without either finding or making them first.
- Laughter: May allow the wielder to awaken the soul of a person; bringing joy to those who may have trouble finding it themselves.
- Loyalty: May give a general increase to the wielder's physical skills, allowing them to be there for their friends, no matter what.
- Note that Rainbow Dash particularly excels in speed; all the better to rush to her friends' aid.
- Actually, I think it's more likely increased charisma.
I realize that I'm reaching for some of these, but these are just first draft ideas.
- With one more caveat that they have to be good friends. Since it's an established part of series cosmology that "friendship" and "magic" are synonyms, naturally the pony who gets the fancy tiara is going to have to have a fairly good relationship with the other five, and they with each other. You can't just throw any random sextet of thematically-qualified ponies together and get an Orbital Friendship Cannon.
- That's actually brilliant. Though they are certainly capable of scary things. Just ask Discord.
- Celestia = Magic: being this one the stronger of the elements, she was able to resist The Corruption, and use the elements.
- Luna = Loyalty: her love and devotion for Celestia, made her able to resist it until the bitter end. later becoming the opposite of her element and the last one to be sealed.
- Discord = Laughter: He said Pinkie's element was his favorite, and seems to have put special effort in her Mind Rape. He could have Mind Raped Luna before having been sealed.
- A Dragon = Generosity: he could have been some kind of "Dragon King" and the one who made the theorized "Dragon egg's deal" with the princesses.
- A Griffon = Kindness: he/she could have, like Fluttershy, been able to talk with animals and helped to bring friendship with all species in equestria.
- Ursa Major = Honesty: first, a humongous eldritch Mama Bear made out of stars is not prone to trickery, and second, the Ursa stars are used for navigation in our world.
- I'm a fan of the notion the original Elements of Harmony were the gods of the other races, but they fell apart after Luna's betrayal.
- Alternatively, the wielders were all winged unicorns. Celestia was the element of kindness, because it would be ironic for someone like Fluttershy to become the supreme ruler of Equestria. Luna possessed the element of loyalty but ended up betraying her own sister. Discord had the element of laughter but eventually turned into a mockery of nature and society. Chrysalis represented the element of honesty until a love poison made her the mother of a deceptive race. Only two more to go.
- Star Swirl was the Element of magic and an Alicorn in disguise. Since he seems to be a greatly respected figure in the study of magic, and Luna said she knew him. He is just hiding.
- I am planning a fanfiction about this, except in my version Luna is kindness-see how kind she is in Luna Eclipsed? Anyway, Chrysalis and the Windigos all form an anti-Elements of Harmony-the Elements of Discord. The four remaining Elements have to be freed by the Mane Six plus Spike because they are all trapped-the Generosity one needs to horde tons of gems in the mines, the loyalty one is paranoid and backstabs everyone, the laughter one is angry at everypony and the honesty one lies about everything and causes chaos in the group. Meanwhile, Chrysalis frees Discord, places the Alicorn Amulet back on Trixie and resurrects Sombra before corrupting Luna and the other four Elements of Harmony again. Keep posted.
- Alternatively, what Discord was actually doing was suppressing the Elements, which is why he was so incredibly confident; the jewelry he let Twilight find was really fakes after he destroyed the old ones. When she revived their Friendship it broke the suppression, and gave the fake jewelry the same "glow when element is used" effect due to that being what they were expecting to happen.
- Also, the Element of Betrayal and the Element of Deceit will both be Heel Face Revolving Doors, and the Element of Malice will be either The Chessmaster or a Magnificent Bastard.
- Though not without making the fans cry. Bonus points if the wielders of the Elements of Discord become Woobies, Destroyers of Worlds.
- Maybe only a certain few ponies have the power to use them, like benders in Avatar: The Last Airbender?
- Celestia has, in principle, the entire pony population of Equestria to draw upon at any time. For her to be chronically unable to put a team of Element bearers together, suitable candidates would have to be extremely rare (even relative to benders, which are actually not that uncommon in the Avatar world), probably to the point that less than six would have to be born within each generation...which would then beg the question why the Elements don't see more use now that the opportunity exists for once. So that's probably not it, or at least not the only reason.
- Possibly only the Magic element is rare.
- That's actually the reason given in canon. In order for the Element of Magic to unlock, there must be harmony between its would-be bearer and that of each of the other five Elements. It's rare because this information is NOT stated in any records pertaining to the Elements of Harmony. That's something the pony trying to unlock them needs to learn and understand on their own.
- Celestia has, in principle, the entire pony population of Equestria to draw upon at any time. For her to be chronically unable to put a team of Element bearers together, suitable candidates would have to be extremely rare (even relative to benders, which are actually not that uncommon in the Avatar world), probably to the point that less than six would have to be born within each generation...which would then beg the question why the Elements don't see more use now that the opportunity exists for once. So that's probably not it, or at least not the only reason.
- Maybe the elements are Cast from Hit Points.
- If the elements really are only a weapon and nothing else, the decision to not even seek out potential wielders until their need was imminent makes a bit more sense. I mean, would you really expect any group of six ponies of pure enough heart to activate the elements to have no objections to their ruler taking pains to obtain a superweapon, during peacetime, without being able to name any specific need? For that matter if you don't take a cynical view of her character it's hard to even imagine the princess being comfortable with that. This does mean she cut it a little close with actually finding the bearers before Nightmare Moon returned, but maybe she lost track of the date—she did send Twilight off on a quest to make friends as soon as Twilight pointed out that her return was going to happen this year. A thousand years is a long time and that'd be a painful anniversary to celebrate.
Dragons: Cupidity
Draconequi: Mockery
Windigos: Malice
Changelings: Deception
????????: ????????
- Hatred? Dispassion? Ooh, I like dispassion. My Little Industrial Pony: Dispassion Is Science.
- Honesty (Applejack)
- Loyalty (Rainbow Dash)
- Kindness (Fluttershy)
- Generosity (Rarity)
- Laughter (Pinkie Pie)
- Magic (Twilight Sparkle)
- Hope (Ms. Cup Cake)
- Love (Princess Cadance)
- Courage (Pipsqueak)
- Forgiveness (Mr.Carrot Cake)
- Tolerance (Shining Armor)
- Light (Potential Takanuva analogue named Diurnum)
- Motherhood (Derpy Hooves)
- Music (DJ PON-3/Vinyl Scratch)
- Creativity (Octavia)
- Imagination (Lyra Heartstrings)
- Understanding (Bon-Bon)
- Time (Doctor Whooves / Time Turner)
- Lying (Liar!Applejack)
- Betrayal (Disloyal!Rainbow Dash)
- Cruelty (Cruel!Fluttershy)
- Selfishness (Selfish!Rarity)
- Anger (Angry!Pinkie Pie)
- Loneliness (Lonely!Twilight Sparkle)
- Despair (Possible antagonist named Lucifer)
- Hatred (Queen Chrysalis)
- Fear (Possible antagonist named Terror)
- Vengeance (Discord)
- Prejudice (Possible antagonist named Nocturne)
- Darkness (Nightmare Moon)
- Divorce (Possibly Silver Spoon's mother?)
- Silence (The Slender Pony)
- Inside-The-Boxness (a possible analogue to the Drill Sergeant Nasty antagonist in Phineas and Ferb?)
- Narrow-Mindedness (Possible Antagonist named Dullard)
- Ignorance (Possible Antagonist called The Inquisitioner)
- Void (The Master / Shetford Hayle)
The Elements will never kill anyone they are used against, not because of the demographic or the wielders, but because they truly are weapons of Harmony. Above all, they want the relationships between ponies to be harmonious, they just put that into effect in... strange ways. NMM's banishment was because the Elements knew that there'd never be harmony as long as she was anything more than a legend. When she returned, the Elements de-aged her back to a time when she didn't resent her sister at all, and depowered her temporarily so that she could take back control gradually, without as many problems.
And Discord? Well, what the Elements did to him makes him even more frightening: he wasn't de-aged, wasn't depowered, he was just turned to a form where he could flat-out not interact with the world around him, although it can react with him. The Elements knew that his only chance at redemption was if he could listen, if he could be convinced. I wouldn't be surprised if Discord, the second time around, can't see or hear or feel at all. The Elements will not kill, but they know what something is a lost cause.
- Essentially jossed by the Season 3 finale. While the Elements' activation played some part in Twilight Sparkle becoming an alicorn, it's not at all clear that they really did anything more than send Twilight on her way to her meeting with Princess Celestia, and in any event no merger of any kind took place.
- The process used by Twilight was also said to be only used by her, strongly implying that Winged Unicorns usually aren't made, never mind using the Elements.
Luna's elements — Honesty, Loyalty, Magic
It's mentioned in "The Return of Harmony" that Celestia and Luna, and only them, used the Elements against Discord, and that had the same effect as when the Mane 6 used them on the same enemy. However, when Celestia used the Elements against Nightmare Moon, she only managed to imprison her, but when the Mane 6 used them they were able to return her to her regular form. It is my belief that the only reason Celestia was unable to save Luna was because she could not use the elements at their full power and had to force the power out of the Elements she already had.
- Celestia worked a thousand years to free her sister and Luna's inability to deal with people back them probably meant she didn't have many friends. I'd swap Loyalty and Magic with Generosity and maybe Laughter.
- Partially confirmed with S 4 E 2: When the two square off against Discord, they are both wearing saddlebags. Celestia takes out the elements of Magic, Kindness, and Generosity from hers, while Luna has Loyalty, Honest, and Laughter.
- Freedom — counterpart to Magic.
- Justice — counterpart to Generosity
- Honor — counterpart to Honesty
- Duty — counterpart to Loyalty
- Mercy — counterpart to Kindness
- Hope — counterpart to Laughter
Discord — Chaos (vs. Magic)
Chrysalis — Deceit (vs Honesty)
Sombra — Fear (vs. Laughter)
Tirek — Greed (vs. Generosity)
?????? — Malice (vs. Kindness)
- Starlight Glimmer's plans revolve around what she perceives/presents as a kindness, yet is anything but. -woggs123
The same may or may not have happened when Celestia and Luna originally sealed Discord up, which may account for the lack of accurate scholarship regarding Discord (Cheerilee simply says that "this statue represents discord", not "this guy once ruled over Equestria and made life miserable for everypony").
- Celestia: Magic, Laughter and Loyalty. Celestia is, in her own way, an inveterate prankster — episodes such as The Ticket Master and Lesson Zero show how she's not above using trickery to get a message across, and she's vastly more freewheeling, jovial and informal than her stringent, uptight and protocol-obsessed younger sibling — Laughter is definitely her Element. Loyalty is another strong point of Celestia's — she braved many dangers to defeat Discord out of love for Equestria, and was later forced to choose loyalty to her kingdom over the happiness of herself and her own sister, separating them for a thousand years. Lastly, she's shown to be a creature of immense magical power — capable of taking on her absent sister's duty of moving the Moon in addition to her own duty of moving the Sun, of dispelling runaway spells with a minimum of effort, and let's not forget that Chrysallis seemed very surprised that she mustered enough power to defeat Celestia.
- Luna: Kindness, Generosity and Honesty. Luna's kindness, although not always obvious, makes itself evident when it's required — notice how in Luna Eclipsed she immediately runs to the aid of Pip when she believes he's in danger of falling into the apple bob tank. Honesty's a harder one, and I'm tempted to assign it to her merely because it doesn't fit with Celestia (who while rarely outright deceptive often doesn't tell the whole truth), but it's quite clear from her interactions with Twilight in the above episode that she's straight-talking and maintains a realistic assessment of her situation, even when self-delusion might make her feel better. It's a bit of a stretch, but Honesty seems like her Element. Lastly, the Element of Generosity strongly fits Luna's personality — in fact, tragically, it's part of the reason she became Nightmare Moon: she made Equestria's night beautiful and yet her charity wasn't appreciated.
For many years, the Tree and the Elements remained relatively dormant, together in peace and immortality, preserving harmony, until Discord gained power after fleeing his prison deep within the Everfree Forest. When Celestia and Luna came to call, the Tree gladly gave up the Elements so they could now fulfil what they wanted from it; to protect their home. As they could not, or rather would not destroy Discord, they merely turned him to stone, effectively freezing his powers far better than they had been when he was trapped in the Forest. The Elements were stored in the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters until Luna sought to defeat the Nightmare Forces and lost, becoming Nightmare Moon, and Celestia used them once more, only succeeding in banishing her. For a thousand years, the Elements slept in the abandoned castle, waiting to be needed and to be, one day, reunited with the Tree of Harmony so as to continue protecting the Tree and the land in the best way possible.
The Mane 6 are the closest to being the Elements reincarnated (as close as one can be when there's not a soul to reincarnate), but not exact, as each has a different Cutie Mark (ie, passion/purpose in life) than the Elements themselves when they were still ponies. This is why they can harness the power of the elements better than even Celestia herself could, as they were able to destroy the Nightmare Force possessing Luna, where Celestia could not. They were chosen by the Elements, who greatly saw themselves in these six ponies, aiding them in battle. The Tree of Harmony began to die, no longer able to protect itself without the Elements there to ensure its safety. When they were finally returned after thousands of years apart, their magic was even more superior than it had been before, allowing the Tree and the Elements to destroy the Plunderseeds.
- Tank, who is nice to even the cattiest of cats, has Kindness.
- Winona, who is always happy and trying to play with others, has Laughter.
- Gummy, who never fails to speak his mind, is Honesty.note
- Aloysius, for always being ready to lend a helping feather, possesses Generosity.
- Angel, who is always there when Fluttershy needs him despite being a total douchnozzle, is Loyalty.
- Opalescence, for being a stuck up jerk to her friends, has Magic.
- Not OP: I don't get the last one.
- While Opalescence has shown a good grasp of social manners, she and early Twilight could be grade-A jerks to people.
- I don't know about that, but cats are often associated with magic, being common familiars for witches and such. So one could justify it that way (since magic doesn't have anything to do with rudeness).
- Not OP: I don't get the last one.
- I just finished writing fanfiction on that premise, without having seen this post.
But this takes on a whole new layer of meaning in "Cutie Mark Chronicles". Applejack managed to miss the actual Rainboom and Rarity didn't behold it herself, so they were largely unaffected. Fluttershy was only minorly affected, causing her to remain calm and brave even as the other animals panicked. But then we get to later stories, and we realize that this Rainboom was directly beheld by both Twilight and Pinkie. The results? Twilight suddenly found herself tapping into an immense power she couldn't control, forcing Celestia to take her under her wings to help her. And Pinkie Pie, an otherwise normal earth pony beforehand, became the Cloudcuckoolander and borderline Reality Warper (exceeding the powers of known unicorns and pegasi) that she is today.
We were lucky the first two times. Who knows what could happen if such acts of breaking the rainbow barrier continue unchecked?
- Alternatively, this is the standard effect of breaking the rainbow barrier... But if too much of it is used, it'll reduce the world to cloying saccharinity, sapping the intellect of all ponies and destroying their individuality in the process. In addition, it will turn at least certain pegasi into earth ponies... Raibow Dash and Scootaloo first and foremost among the afflicted. If the rainbow barrier is breached too carelessly and too often... this may be what Equestria reverts to!
- It was broken a 3rd time in Lesson Zero, so we may be getting there…
The contrail (the stream of rainbow that flows behind) is an after image blur, the long duration of such made possible by the large quantities of exhaust energies shed by the pegasus from the natural thrust vector magic they unconsciously use to obtain supersonic speeds. As such, the contrail is largely harmless though potentially very pretty. The contrail's coloration would be dependent on the coloration of the pegasus.
The high intensity energies within the prismatic wave would have properties similar to Comic Book radiation, namely they would give things exposed to them strange powers and abilities. This probably only effects creatures that already have at least some degree of magic (to help explain why plants and such seem to be unaffected) and any powers or abilities gained would follow along the natural paths of magic for the affected creature (so ponies would gain powers in relation to their special talent.) Let's look at the mane six:
- Pinkie Pie is the only one whose story shows that she was caught by the full force of the shockwave, and therefor would have received a maximum dosage of the high intensity energies. Pinkie Pie's special talent is making ponies smile (Parties are just a good way to make large numbers of ponies smile at once). This would be why Pinkie Pie can access Toon Physics, which allows her to perform feats and use abilities that defy explanation by modern unicorn magic, provided they are humorous or make for a good gag.
- Fluttershy was in the middle of the forest when the prismatic wave went over head. The trees of the forest might have somehow prevented most of the energy from reaching the ground, causing most of the high-intensity energies to pass overhead, though some might have leaked down to Fluttershy. That would explain her 'Stare,' which certainly is a strange ability and can is generally used to influence animals, linking it to her special talent.
- Applejack was in Manehatten at the time and didn't even see the prismatic wave. All she saw was Rainbow Dash's contrail heading in the direction of Ponyville.
- Rarity saw the prismatic wave pass overhead, but between her and the origin point of the wave, was the Rock, which would have acted as a windbreak. The gems inside the rock could have absorbed any energies that came in contact with it, increasing the effective size of the wind break effect.
- Twilight Sparkle was in Canterlot and seemingly far from the Sonic Rainboom. So her magic would have been unaffected by the prismatic wave, though the loud boom startling she was trying to use her magic (possibly coupled with whatever subtle shifts in Equestria's ambient magical fields the Rainboom would have caused) caused whatever was blocking her from accessing her titanic pools of magical power to break loose.
- Rainbow Dash was at the epicenter of the sonic rainboom, though it could be argued that the rainboom started just behind her and propagated at a slower speed than what RD was flying at. As such, Rainbow Dash would have had minimal contact with any high intensity energies.
In this entry, we present evidence that the world of Equestria may in fact obey the conventional laws of physics under a Discworld-like Background Magic Field. An experiment realized by a young Pegasus Pony named Rainbow Dash literally brings new light on the subject.
A recognized property of the Discworld's BMF is that any light passing through it is slowed down until its speed becomes roughly equal to the speed of sound. As a result, any moving object breaking the sound barrier will also break the light barrier. Close and distant observers can then hear a sonic boom and see a prismatic flash, always perceived as if simultaneous with each other.
In the two occasions where Miss Dash created what she calls a "sonic rainboom", all witnesses described the phenomenon in terms remarkably similar to the above paragraph. We think this is solid indication that Equestria's magic may not be unlike the one studied at the Unseen University.
Further investigation at Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns revealed that the first of those two "sonic rainbooms" may also have caused a thaumic chain reaction within this reputed establishment. We were assured it was contained without any long-term damage.
- Friendship is magic. It's a magic thingummy. Sounds legit.
However, if a pegasus is determined enough, they can push themselves to break reality's barrier and cause a Sonic Rainboom (it was probably easier for Rainbow Dash, since she's the Element of Loyalty and the reason for both Rainbooms were her friends). At this point, the laws of physics give up and stop restraining the given pegasus. Let's see what kind of laws we've seen abolished:
- Friction: The rapid gain of speed after a Rainboom is not caused by acceleration — rather, the pegasus is no longer bound by air resistance.
- Inertia: Rainbow Dash could make impossibly narrow turns not even losing a fraction of her speed.
- Gravity: The reason why Rainbow Dash was able to carry three Wonderbolts and Rarity and still fly and maneuver at top speed is because weight had no effect on her.
It implies that after performing a Sonic Rainboom a pegasus could possibly do some other interesting things, like going off to space, flying around the world fast enough to make time flow backwards or usurping Celestia as the ultimate ruler of Equestria. However, none of the above occurred to Rainbow Dash at the right time.
Note that because of its nature, Sonic Rainboom could cause any of the reality-warping effects mentioned in WMGs above.
- Grants it's wearer whatever her or his heart most desires, regardless of their race. For example, to pegasi it can give speed beyond measure and for earth ponies, it can grant the might to overpower anything or anypony. As for unicorns, it could help them unlock their inner abilities.
- A refinement of the previous point: The alicorn amulet is usable by all three pony races, and massively enhances the abilities that are inherent to each race. Since alicorns possess the abilities of all the races, it would make sense for it to be usable by anypony (So a pegasus would gain enormously enhanced flight and weather control, and an earth pony would have Super-Strength and possibly some matter of earth/nature control).
- To further this argument, look at what Trixie does shortly after removing the Amulet: her first act of power is to fire a spell at Rainbow Dash that would make her "writhe in agony". It doesn't work of course, but it does raise the question: if the amulet does indeed have a corruptive influence on the wearer, why didn't Trixie instantly revert back to her old, less psychopathic self as soon as she took it off, rather than long after she realized her powers were diminished? This is further evidence that the corruption is not forced upon the user, but rather comes from the user themselves as a result of too much power.
- Bearing in mind, of course, that Trixie got decidedly nuttier as time went by. Remember, this is a showmare who travels in a wheeled cart... who decides she "doesn't trust wheels". Some decidedly progressive insanity there, which helps explain why a stage magician didn't pick up on Twilight's use of stage magic.
- How is that the rule? The only onscreen winged unicorn transformation was the result of a spell and the Elements of Harmony.
- Where did the seven days come from?