It makes me wonder why Celestia would let something like that slide though. Unless... she WANTS certain events to be glossed over. 0_0

What's this?! Celestia's created a new department in Canterlot? The Ministry of Truth? Sounds like an honest place!

edited 13th Dec '11 4:53:51 PM by gingerninja666

@Crow: Ah, I see! I think I figured out why I had all these ideas about the founding of Equestria thing. I was automatically deriving it from my headcanon/aborted fanfic idea, where Equestria was founded by the sisters after Discord's defeat, and just assumed that that was official (it would explain why all details would be known about the events then, because of the living witnesses).

I never considered that it might have taken place MANY thousands of years earlier. Wow, that's interesting, too!

(Still would like a Discord defeat flashback sometime, though ^^)

Eh, Ponychan is cyclical. Sort of reminds me of TV Tropes' It Just Bugs Me subforum before it got nuked for good.

Non-sequitur: Does anyone recognize the background that they play for Rarity's show off during "Sonic Rainboom"? It's been nagging at me ever since I saw that episode. It sounds Strauss or Tchaikovsky ish though for the life of me I can't remember which one.

It may simply be that Celestia doesn't have time to check on everypony's education all the time. Smaller towns like ponyville might slip into myth while a larger city like Canterlot would have more accurate records. Or maybe Celestia doesn't have much at all to do with the education system, and lets it do as it would. Although that misses out on the wonderful opportunity of Celestia giving a guest lecture on Equestrian history and Canterlot university

Applejack's epic lassoing skills?

I wouldn't expect her to allow that sort of thing to happen... though I did hear (from Ask Aquilinus, actually) the idea that Celestia sealed herself away in the Everfree Palace for about forty or fifty years after the Nightmare Eclipse, and just refused to come out. That might have been sufficient time for ponies to fall into a mini-dark age and lose some history, and if she tried to reeducate her subjects about Luna once she got back on the throne, it would by necessity end with 'so she went evil, tried to murder you all, and then I sent her away, possibly forever'. Especially when Nightmare Moon is apparently a hated and feared figure, linking your sister to her probably isn't the best way to give her a smooth re-introduction into society. Being forgotten is easier than being demonized for a thousand years, especially when you can then work to make things better.

I remember that controversial article where someone was complaining about Fi M teaching children to be little racist homophobic people withou even watching it. To back up her claims, she mentions RD's design as "butch" and those two brown ponies as being slaves.

Meh. Anything popular is bound to attract some nuts.

"These aren't the droids you're looking for."

It's just... she was there, wouldn't she WANT stuff to be remembered? To me it seems like, if things started getting really bad in terms of oversimplification/straght up ignorance of the facts then I think she'd do something. She's in charge of ALL of Equestria, who's gonna say no to her?

Yeah, that makes sense.

What's the nightmare eclipse?

edited 13th Dec '11 5:03:46 PM by gingerninja666

Did the average pony even know about Luna, even aside from the whole Nightmare Moon thing? Or were they all confused as hell when Celestia just showed up with another princess that she'd pulled out of thin air?

edited 13th Dec '11 5:03:08 PM by Crowfall

Yeah, Ponychan is a BAD place to discuss ponies. /pony/ sucks hardcore, but /chat/ and /phoenix/ are nice. and if you like randomness, /oat/ is fun too. As is /pic/. Just stay away from /pony/ and you're in the clear.

Well, we gotta admit that even if she wanted to keep things accurate, it probably wouldn't work too well. I mean, we can go back less than a hundred years and be totally unsure of what really happened.

Multiply that by ten and add the fact that Celestia probably shoved it under wraps for her sister's sake, and yeah. Although if both sisters were present for the founding of Equestria, it's probably an accurate summary. Simplified obviously, if only because they have to fit it into a short episode, and also because it's a kid's show. It's not like this show is going to delve into political science. It's probably going to boil down to "the ponies didn't get along, and then they learned to. Friendship is awesome."

If only the real world worked like that

Sudden five part episode out of nowhere, going into extreme detail about the political structure and economic system of Equestria!

YES. MAKE THAT.

If not for the fact that I generally hate politics, I'd find that idea hilarious.

Weird thought: Do judge ponies need to use gavels? Or do their hooves suffice?

All Worldbuilding rules. I enjoyed the insane overcomplexity in Tolkien, I'd enjoy it here.

Hmm, but now I'm confused. So what's everyone's idea of when this founding of Equestria was? Were the sisters around already?

Well, the auctioneer used a gavel. But a judge might be more imposing if they just banged their hooves down...

My personal fanon of the founding of Equestria? There were lots of gods and goddesses, but they largely kept to themselves in an olympian sort of manner. Other ponies started to worship them, or they took an interest in them, and different gods would 'adopt' countries, becoming their patrons - like how each city-state in Greece had a patron God or Goddess, except in this case they were actually, physically there. So Equestria was formed before Luna and Celestia took charge, and then they came later. Probably some time after defeating discord, and the ponies liked them enough to revere them for it, so they just sort of stuck around.

edited 13th Dec '11 5:20:18 PM by kegisak

The auctioneer pony used a gavel, so I assume a judge would as well.

N-n-n-ninjad

edited 13th Dec '11 5:18:16 PM by Crowfall

Didn't Celestia say that she and Luna came to Equestria to free it from Discord? If so I'd imagine that the events of the play take place before any of that. Discord showed up sometime after the founding, and the princesses some time after that. That's what I'm going with for now, though the episode might mess that up completely. I doubt Discord will actually be in the play, just because that seems like a lot of details to cram into a single episode.

And because it would make the play's ending kind of a downer (like Death said) wouldn't it?

Yay! All the races have united! Oh FUCK, here comes Discord!!

edited 13th Dec '11 5:27:30 PM by gingerninja666

@Kegi: Wow, I like that a lot . It also doesn't clash with my headcanon at all and combines nicely with it, so even better. Well.... things might change with Saturday, won't they?

However, I'm already convinced I'll love this episode to death, so that trumps all potential fanon-destruction for me (canon >>> fanon always).

Yup, I'm fully willing to get my ideas on the origins of Equestria jossed to shit after this episode. Good thing I've never written them down anywhere!

The gavel gives it an air of authority. Banging your hoof (equivalently a fist) on the table looks like someone getting mad enough to start throwing a temper tantrum.

Depends when this is in relation to everything else. I'm just assuming that Discord doesn't show up until later, but I could be very wrong about that.

edited 13th Dec '11 5:34:07 PM by Crowfall