What about Celstia?

Upon discovering there's an Apple family episode approaching, did he do the victory dance?

Celestia's fandom interpretation is a lot different from her canon approach. For example:

Canon: Celestia sends one person to the moon, once, for becoming batshit insane and omnicidal. Fanon: Celestia sends people to the moon, randomly, all the time.

edited 21st Dec '11 11:02:54 AM by thefran

"Numfarr! Do the dance of joy!"

She's a good Overmare.

edited 21st Dec '11 11:02:24 AM by AceOfScarabs

I just realized it's a shoutout to MLP.

edited 21st Dec '11 11:07:19 AM by thefran

Heh.

I'm pretty sure I saw Derpy in the background to a Penny Arcade comic a month or two back.

I'd like to think that the Royal Guards have a plebian counterpart that patrols the region and keeps most of the riff-raff out of the civilized areas.

Some concepts I've thought up forthe Royal Military...

Royal Guards are the elite. Handpicked out of the rank and file military for duty in Canterlot and used for palace duties. They rotate out between guarding the Royal Sisters, standing watch on the palace grounds and various ceremonial duties around Canterlot. Royal Guards do not typically display their rank, so as to present a uniform appearance.

Some random concepts I had on the Royal Army and Royal Air Corps (EP's man the Army, Pegasi join the Air Corps, Unicrons do administrative duties and other chores, but can also join the Army with a waiver):

Secure messenger service between units is done via the Royal Messenger Corps, a subdivision of the Royal Guards. Comprised strictly of Pegasi, they fly small packages, letters and such from place to place. They usually fly solo. Lightly armored, using a flexible chain or scale mail, as opposed to plate.

There are Axiliary functions in the Army and Royal Guards that are best fit by specialized troops. Usually, these positions are filled by Unicorns. Record-keeping, Engineers, Finance, Medical teams, and so on. These are usually non-combat positions, and are designed to support the warfighter, so to keep the troops at maximum eficiency. You can typically find these specalized troops in cities and the like; Ponyville is too small to have an Auxiliary Corps detachment, for example.

Royal Army troops are lightly-armed (padded armor and bits of chain-mail, a spear for a weapon) EP's, deployed in 30-pony platoons (or Turma to borrow the Roman term) led by three veteran soldiers; one of these lead the platoon, the other two were deputies. Each veteran commands ten troops (a Squad), so the total platoon strength is 33 ponies. The Veteran of each Squad has more chain-mail, but is otherwise light armored as well. A single platoon is usually assigned to cover the hinterlands surrounding a town. More assigned as needed for larger areas. They tend to stay out of sight,

Enlisted ranks in the Royal Military: Recruit, Private, Corporal, Sergeant, Senior Sergeant, Master Sergeant, Sergeant Major. Sergeant Major, when plural, is Sergeants Major. DO. NOT. SCREW. THIS. UP. Enlisted rank is denoted by the number of cheverons and rockers clasped to the shoulder-loops of the armor. Recruits are denoted by having no rank insignia at all, after that, each rank gains a cheveron, (up to three), followed by rockers. Thus, a Sergeant Major has three cheverons and three rockers.

Offier Ranks in the Royal Military: Officer-Cadet, Fourth-Rank Lieutenant, Third-Rank Lieutenant, Second-Rank Lieutenant, First-Rank Lieutenant, Captain, Major, General. An officer who hold a Lieutenant rank is usually referred to as "[Title] First Rank [Name]", and the Lieutenant suffix is dropped except for extreme formality, or written orders. Officer rank insignia for Lieutenants is denoted by small stars set on a small black plate on the shoulder of the armor. A fourth-rank has one, a first has four. Captains have a single large star bouded by an enamel square, a Major has two in an enamel rectangle, and a General has three bounded together in an enamel triangle. Officer-Cadets have only a blank black square, gaining a small star upon completion of their officers training course.

Example, standard address - Messenger First-Rank Firebird, Auxiliary Third-Rank Landesknecht

Informal address: Messenger Firebird or simple "El-tee", Aux Third or Aux "Land".

Fomral address: Messenger First-Rank Lieutenant Firebird, Auxiliary Third-Rank Lieutenant Landsknecht.

The Royal Air Corps is divided up into Wings. Each Wing is comprised of three Flights, each with ten Pegasi, under command of a Flight Leader, typically a Senior Sergeant or Fourth-Rank. A Flight will typically be assigned an area to patrol, spotting threats fro the air and relaying these finding to the Platoon or Earth Ponies on teh ground nearest the threat. Thus, a Flight and a Platoon work in concert to ensure safety to a geographical area.

The Royal Air Corps has a strong sense of tradition, borne out by long centuries-worth of military tradition amongst the Pegasi. A large number of Royal Guards are pulled out from the Air Corps as a result, and it is commonly viewed as the more professional force than the Army, much to the Army's chagrin.

Whoah really? Time to go on an Archive Binge!

edited 21st Dec '11 11:12:00 AM by CDRW

I don't often bring up AJ on my own inititive, but by God, I'll fight her corner she does appear.

And I'd love for an episode (perhaps season 3?) to actually mention this whole Tyrant business...

...like a pony messes up and publicly begs her not to banish them, and a stern but reasonable Celestia tells them to calm down, and their punishment is to clean up the mess...then she asks why everypony keeps fearing her when she's only ever been patient and reasonable.

25 followers.

I have a confession: I read a few chapters of Frigid Winds And Burning Hearts before I started the series (or right after watching the first two episodes I don't remember) so I'm predisposed to this whole Tyrant Celstia thing. I don't buy it as cannon mind, there isn't any evidence I have seen this far that Celista is more then a cunning but good natured Goddess Ruler, but it makes for a good bit of fanon.

edited 21st Dec '11 11:18:33 AM by LMage

Fanon celestia is fun soemtimes but Canon celestia is much more complex and interesting than that.

Yeah, Celestia seems nice and benevolent. I don't get the whole tyrant thing, either. If anyone was going to be called a tyrant, it would be Luna.

But they need to flesh out Celestia more. Her RCV is more subdued than Luna's, but it's definitely there (Lesson Zero hinted at it with Twilight Sparkle!).

edited 21st Dec '11 11:17:46 AM by pvtnum11

When you're a Goddess-tier ruler, not only does everypony orz before you, They also remember what you are capable of doing re:Discord and your own sister when she tried to make an Endless Night. Everypony is really, really scared of what you could do to them if you were offended or outraged.

Luna is awkward in some rather Twilight-like ways, only she hides it behind her OUTRAGEOUS ways. It's even worse for her because everypony jolly well knows what you did to get sent to the moon.

edited 21st Dec '11 11:18:43 AM by AceOfScarabs

I'm fine with the Tyrant Celestia jokes as long as we keep them out of canon; they can be funny, but I'm tired of people trying to claim that she's actually like that in the show.

Luna doesn't actually rule anything currently, being demoted to a public service announcer.

The problem is with people explaining all the plotholes as if they were Princess Celestia's intentional dickassery.

edited 21st Dec '11 11:18:45 AM by thefran

Probably due to gross oversimplification of her decisions that make her out to seem like a trolling tyrant i.e. "Sister wants more attention? Send her to the MOON!" and as well as "where do the ponies get their preconceived notions of the princess from?" Such as imprisoning them in the place she banished them too.

x5 Agreed Luna was very hammy and very bad at being evil but she was very dangerous. she could have killed twilight if it wasn't for her friends.

edited 21st Dec '11 11:19:30 AM by FallenLegend

And for troper eyes only, a preview of my 25-follower benchmark image◊. May Luna give me strength as I attempt to use this new-fangled software to pretty it up.

When was that? I don't remember her ever being that dangerous.

edited 21st Dec '11 11:20:50 AM by JapaneseTeeth

@Jteeth: When she collapsed the cliff as Nightmare Moon in S1E2.

edited 21st Dec '11 11:21:49 AM by AceOfScarabs

Idk, the whole Moon thing did seem a bit over the top. Why didn't she do what she did in modern times (use a group of yokels from a small time to weild the ultamiet powers of the universe and purfie Nightmare Moon) then?

My interpretation of the pilot is that the Nightmare and Luna were keeping on their internal struggle, thus making it so NMM couldn't hurt anyone directly.

edited 21st Dec '11 11:22:41 AM by thefran

x5

Probably unintended by Lauren Faust but supposing twilight had gone alone the part on the cliff it would have damaged Twilight a lot if not killed her, a fight with that lion beast would have damaged her a lot too to say the least.

edited 21st Dec '11 11:25:15 AM by FallenLegend

Yeah, Celestia must have been running interference. Unless even Evil has standards and won't outright kill anyone directly. Ponies have survived big falls before.