So earth ponies were peasants, pegasi were warriors, and unicorns were Brahmins, huh? I'm amused that they bothered to base pre-classical ponies on the medieval Estates.

This myth sure threw a monkey wrench in the idea that Celestia and Luna are goddesses who created Equestria, though.

They came later, to battle Discord when he nearly ruined everypony permanently.

Alternatively, the christmas special is religion, while the celestia thing is what actually happened.

...

I did not mean for that to come out the way that it did.

Damn it, I was going to go there but I totally forgot it. And my mom probably wouldn't have let me.

Hmm, I do not recall them creating Equestria, only ruling it. Although it is still interesting to know just how they got in charge of day and night, and, for that matter, how they came to be.

Full-on overanalyzing modus from here on

Well... The flag of Equestria the three tribes raise already shows Luna and Celestia. Now that might be a historical anachronism and the theatre simply showed the current Equestrian flag - or, maybe at that time Celestia and Luna already were important or even mythological figures.

I wonder what happened to the pony tribes' old land... maybe the vacated lands where then settled by the bisons, and that is the territory where Appleosia (or whatever the spelling is) is? After all, ponies seemed to only recently have returned to that region...

Also, we can guess now how Prince Blueblood is royalty - the unicorns used to have an own royal line. Odd how Rainbow Dash is addressed as "sir". But maybe she had a crossdressing role and Commander Hurricane was male.

Now as for historical interpretation:

In the pre-classical era, there once was relatively stable civilization, based on trade between the three tribes. Between the three there were clear hierarchical differences, with Earth Ponies being the least powerful tribe, as they had to pay tribute to anybody. And probably a wasteful and inefficient leadership. I mean, the Earth Ponies look the most ragged of all, and yet their leader is the most colourful of the three?

Then a social collapse happened due to a climate shift. Those things happen. The ensuing chaos destroyed the tribute system, and as the worsening weather removed the pegasi' primary source of power, the Earth Ponies grew in importance and standing. This leveled the playing field, and the three tribes became real competitors.

The climate shift also forced large migration movements. It was during those migration that the power of all three traditional leaderships were weakened, as the common population (represented by the assistents) grew more resentful to them, owing to the harsh conditions and the weakening of traditional legitimacy due to the general chaos.

Thus, the story of the cave is actually a parable of sorts, with each of the six figures (who might not have lived at all) representing old and new order each in every tribe. In the course of the ongoing migrations, the old guard was toppled everywhere, a process that was spurred by a charismatic unicorn leader who hence gets to have a special role in the cave parable. That unicorn leader then craftly used the opportunity to unite the tribes into the new nation of Equestria.

That's how I'd interpret this, anyway

If I recall, "sir" is a unisex term in a military context. (Though "ma'am" can still be used. Depends on stuff, I guess.)

The US military almost always uses "ma'am" for a female officer of superior rank. Calling them "sir" is something that happens in video games and TV — usually just as a research failure, but some sci-fi series like the recent Battlestar Galactica did it as a deliberate stylistic thing to stress gender blindness in Colonial ranks.

So basically it could be a research fail, or the gender blindness approach could apply to Equestria, or the Commander was male, or it could just fall under Rainbow Dash Honestly Does Not Give A Shit.

edited 19th Dec '11 1:54:27 AM by Pykrete

I stand corrected.

Sir.

I just realized something.

You know how Rainbow was acting all gloaty and it seemed like she had forgotten her lesson from "Mare Do Well"?

She was probably gettting in character for Commander Hurricane!

Well I think I have the name for my next Shepard: Commander Hurricane Shepard

I'm personally a fan of Puddinghead Shepard.

That might fit better to the crazy-snarky personality of Hawke...

I always liked Conan Shepard.

In other news, I just learned today that "A Bird in the Hoof" originally aired on my birthday. Happy Birthday to me!

edited 19th Dec '11 8:57:20 AM by KarlKadaver

How much you wanna bet that someone will take the new episode and make a shakespere type fanfic based off it?

edited 19th Dec '11 9:03:07 AM by marston

By Celestia's beard!

EDIT: here, have some epic

Here, have some abject terror

Here, prepare for trouble

edited 19th Dec '11 1:50:23 PM by Pykrete

Pinkie seems to be enjoying herself...

That second picture is my current wallpaper.

The trouble has been doubled!

Hurricane Hawke? That sounds like a name Dash would come up with herself.

I suppose I haven't notified the people of this thread.

have some humanized ponies

Have some Amazon Applejack

Have Some showgirl Pinkie Pie

Have some shameless self promotion.

Those are pretty good bro :) Do you also do ponies drawn as ponies? Or do you always humanize then?

I'm practicing drawing ponies on the side but people are easier and I'm having fun with this. I've drawn a reference for drawing Celestia's body type and Officer Peeler, the police pony OC we invented collaboratively in the western animation mlp: fim thread.

Whatever you like doing man. Didn't mean to imply you "should" do anything one way or another, was just curious.

Last time I searched Derpy Hooves on Ponibooru, the results totaled in 404 pages.

Derpy not found.-squee-