History WMG / MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicSetting

!![[center: [-'''Setting guesses''', [[WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicManeCharacters Main Character guesses]], [[WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicSecondaryCharacters Secondary Character guesses]], [[WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicVillains Villain guesses]], [[WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicMinorCharacters Minor Character guesses]], [[WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicFutureStories Future Stories guesses]], [[WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicJossed Jossed guesses]], [[WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicConfirmed Confirmed guesses]]-]]][[center:[- ''WMG/MyLittlePonyTheMovie2017'', ''WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW'', ''WMG/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls''-]]]

!![[center: [-'''Setting guesses''', [[WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicManeCharacters Main Character guesses,]] [[WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicSecondaryCharacters Secondary Character guesses]], [[WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicVillains Villain guesses]], [[WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicMinorCharacters Minor Character guesses]], [[WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicFutureStories Future Stories guesses]], [[WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicJossed Jossed guesses]], [[WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicConfirmed Confirmed guesses]]-]]][[center:[- ''WMG/MyLittlePonyTheMovie2017'', ''WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW'', ''WMG/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls''-]]]

Guesses about the wide world of Equestria, its inhabitants, culture and beyond. If you have a guess about something else, then

->[[WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicManeCharacters Mane Character Guesses go here]]
->[[WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicSecondaryCharacters Secondary Character Guesses go here]]
->[[WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicVillains Villain Guesses go here]]
->[[WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicMinorCharacters Minor Character Guesses go here]]
->[[WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicFutureStories Future Stories go here]]
->[[WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicComicBookSeries Comic Book Series Guesses go here]]
->[[WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicJossed Jossed Guesses go here]]
->[[WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicConfirmed Confirmed Guesses go here]]

->[[WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicMeta Meta Guesses go here]]

->'''BUT'''
--> [[WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicPinkiePie Pinkie Pie Guesses go here]]
--> [[WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicTwilightSparkle Twilight Guesses go here]]
--> [[WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicFluttershy Fluttershy Guesses go here]]
--> [[WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicSpike Spike Guesses go here]]
->[[WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicPillarsofEquestria Pillars of Equestria Guesses go here]]

->[[WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicRoyalty Royalty Guesses go here]]

->and you can still go back to the [[WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Main WMG Page, here]]

* WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicSettingDragons

->'''BUT''' [[WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicPinkiePie Pinkie Pie Guesses go here]]

* WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendsipIsMagicSettingSharedUniverses
* WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendsipIsMagicSettingPonies
* WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendsipIsMagicSettingEquestria
* WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendsipIsMagicSettingEquestrianCulture
* WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendsipIsMagicSettingScienceAndMagic
* WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendsipIsMagicSettingDragons
* WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendsipIsMagicSettingOtherSpecies

*

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Shared Universes]]
[[WMG: Equestria is on the Earth of SamuraiJack.]]
The sentient/sapient Ponies (etc.) are much like the talking dog archaeologists, among others; Princess Celestia is a descendant/peer of that giant god-horse that helped Jack's Dad way back when; Luna was corrupted by Aku to become Nightmare Moon (which is why it took a blast from the PowerOfFriendship to revert her); Equestria is one of the holdouts against Aku's power, which is why there are incursions from random monsters while the weather has to be controlled by (good) magic; the SchizoTech fits in with the Samurai Jack aesthetic (Farting Dragon episode, anyone?); and most importantly it'd be [[RuleOfCool cool]] if all of this were the case.
* THIS IS A CROSSOVER THAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN. NOW. Jack/Pinkie Pie! Get on it!
** Sorry, no Pinkie Pie. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDY5YpLqypk Have some Samurai Applejack instead!]]
*** Adding to this, Discord may be one of Aku's minions.
* [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/7648/Jack-and-the-Ponies It's been written.]]

[[WMG: Equestria is a realm in the classic [[SpyroTheDragon Spyro]] series.]]
It's not that much of a stretch when you think about it, what with the classic series looking like the art style of the show in digital form. Besides that, the main characters look like they would fit in with the Spyro 'verse quite nicely. There's also the fact Spike is a purple dragon that can walk on two legs...

[[WMG: The ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''-verse is part of the Dungeons and Dragons cosmology.]]
Walk through the right door in Sigil and you'll wind up in a gorgeous land of magical ponies and unusually bright and friendly versions of monsters common throughout the planes. Now we just gotta guess which pony belongs to what character class.
* 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 ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' and dungeonpunk, 4th for the streamlined aesthetic matching the clean bright lines of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''. 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 [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKs-MHFil0k 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}}.
* Well, we [[http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/01/art-8-bitgag-theater.html know]] what they'd be in FinalFantasy.
* I'm just going to leave [[http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?569049-What-the-hell-Paizo this]] here.

[[WMG: The ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''-verse is part of the [[CallOfCthulhu Cthulhu]] cosmology.]]
Based on how often the characters [[SanitySlippage go nuts]], especially Twilight the spellcaster.
* It's probably somewhere in the Dreamlands though.
** So the Princesses are probably [[PhysicalGod Great Ones]].
* Oh, and an omnicidal god locked away for a thousand years, sounds familiar, [[EldritchAbomination 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.

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 ''Literature/TheDunwichHorror'').
* Why Cthulhu!Luna was so EasilyForgiven; 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 AnarchicOrder 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.[[spoiler:Okay, I still do]]

[[WMG: Equestria is a plane of [[MagicTheGathering Dominia]].]]
On second thought: Equestria might be somehow close or connected to Lorwyn/Shadowmoor since in both cases, we have conflicts between forces of day and night that span centuries.
* 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 ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' 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.
* It's also a nice coincidence that Celestia's cutie mark looks exactly like the white Mana symbol.

[[WMG: Equestria is the Isle of the Houyhnhnms from ''GulliversTravels''.]]
After a few hundred years of technological advances, of course. The Yahoos have nearly been wiped out as well.
* Taking this further, the Houyhnhnms were able to take enormous leaps and bounds in both technological, sociological, and moral concepts thanks to [[TheMagicComesBack the magic coming back]]. The Yahoo could not cope.

[[WMG: Both WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic and ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Thundercats 2011}} [=ThunderCats (2011)=]]]'' take place on the same planet.]]
Like Thundera, Equestria is just another kingdom on Third Earth, albeit larger and (so far) free from Mumm-Ra's influence. The reason why the gas giant planet hasn't been seen by the ponies is because Third Earth is tidally locked and only the Thundera side faces the planet. Eventually the cats will enter Equestria an be amazed at finding horses (especially unicorns) and will try to enlist their powerful magic in defeating Mumm-ra. It is also possible that one of the Power Stones is hidden in Equestria, since its high concentration of gemstones would be like hiding a needle in a haystack. Also the Snarfs (which are distantly related to dragons) are originally from Equestria but migrated to the Everfree Forest, which is actually a massive landbridge that serves as the link between the two. It is also possible that whatever possessed Princess Luna is in fact one of, all of, or a splinter of the Ancient Spirits of Evil that Mumm-Ra invokes in his TransformationSequence.
* 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.

[[WMG: This series is actually set in the same universe as all of the previous cartoon series.]]
Since this is a franchise-wide theory, it's detailed [[WMG/MyLittlePony here]].

[[WMG: The ponies are in fact the Gods of the [[ASongOfIceAndFire Dothraki]].]]
The Dothraki believe in horse Gods, so yeah...
* Not only that, but their Gods also represent stellar objects, like the Sun, Moon, and the Stars.

[[WMG: Equestria is the result of a game of [[Webcomic/{{Homestuck}} Sburb]] played by ponies.]]
Celestia and Luna were the only players of said game to reach the God Tier, thus fully realizing their roles as the [[http://www.ponychan.net/chan/art/src/130481599774.png HEIR OF LIGHT and MAID OF VOID]].
* 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 [[http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/503/dashtime20percentcooler.png 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

[[WMG: Equestria was originally an living enviroments experiment at [[HalfLife Black Mesa]]. ]]
Equestria is a test to see if a better, more peaceful world could be bio-engineered using nano-technology to create Pony-Human-Xen hybrids. During the Resonance Cascade, the experimental ponies were transported to an uninhabited dimension with no other sentient life (thus explaining things like the Parasprites and the Everfree Forest. Equestria is no longer a Black Mesa testing facility, thus "bad" things exist to an extent.) Celestia was originally a Black Mesa employee who was given near (but not actual) god-like power for the purpose of making sure a revolt did not happen at the base. Due to the time and the transportation, she has gone insane, believing she is an actual Physical God. Thus, Half-Life 3 involves Gordon Freeman being "hired" by the G-Man to go to Equestria to snap Celestia out of her insanity in order to fulfill the G-Man's unknown plan while the Equestrian equivalent to the HECU hunt Freeman down. Half-Life 2: Episode 3 has been delayed for so long because ValveSoftware is having difficulty ending Half-Life 2's plot while beginning Half-Life 3's.
* Guess that explains all the ''VideoGame/{{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 ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' 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 [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 a band of mercenary ponies!]]

[[WMG: The series takes place in the same world as WesternAnimation/AdventureTime.]]
-nods to the guy who said there's not enough tie-in theories on this page- Yet another permutation of the "post-apocalyptic Equestria" theory; this time, the current setting was a result of the devastation caused by the Mushroom War. The usual "humanity was wiped out in a catastrophic nuclear war" (excepting Finn this time, of course) corollary still holds, and on top of that, whatever cataclysmic force ripped a giant chunk out of the Earth (as seen in that one orbital shot in ''Adventure Time'') also splintered the continents, separating what little life remained on the planet, and as the eons went by, the radiation and divergent evolution kicked in. On one landmass, we ended up with sentient ponies who built a new, monarchic society in the image of mankind's, while on the other, we got a weird grab-bag of inanimate objects (candy, desserts, ice, street signs...) brought to life and mutant animals forming a far looser, almost feudalistic society. Obviously, the former became Equestria, and the latter became the Land of Ooo. Ooo's weaker government and relative lawlessness are the result of their greater diversity and the disharmony that resulted from it, whereas Equestrians pretty much seem to agree on letting ponies rule everything (which may imply some degree of [[FantasticRacism pony-supremacist]] thought on the part of the ruling elite). On both sides, though, the collapse of developed civilisation brought on a return to a primitive, superstitious way of life for the new sentients of the earth, which heralded the return of [[TheMagicComesBack magic and mythical creatures]] (I say that last part as a way of pacifying those who would crucify me for implying that ponies and magic are the way they are because they're radioactive...).
* 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 RegularShow then, as WesternAnimation/AdventureTime 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.

[[WMG: Equestria is a [[FadingSuns Shantor]] reservation.]]
Specifically one where the Second Republic performed genetic experiments on the population. Fortunately their jumpgate was sealed before the Fall and they're still [[LostColony Lost]].
* 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 LighterAndSofter form of Urge.
* The reason the ponies need to micromanage every aspect of the environment is because the terraforming machinery is failing.

[[WMG: G4 is set years after G1.]]
Possibly a ParallelUniverse with several key differences (no Applejack, possibly no humans, etc), or a retconned version of the Pony timeline whether neither G3 nor G2 happened. There are several relations to G1, which can be seen in the ShoutOut/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic page. Cheerilee (and Rarity probably) lived in the Pony version of TheEighties, and G1 was very eighties right down to EightiesHair. Twilight's mom apparently appears to be an aged version of Twilight, and the Spa Twins are older versions of newborn Ponies from G1.

[[WMG: The setting is a universe alternate to the main [[StarTrekTheNextGeneration Star Trek]] universe.]]
In which Q, when being punished by the Continuum (Deja Q), instead of choosing to be made human and dropped off on the Enterprise-D chooses to be turned into a magical chimera and sent to the planet Equestria where he can troll ponies.
* 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.

[[WMG: The show takes place in the same universe as one of the various Transformers continuity families.]]
They talk about "sparks" a lot in the pilot. They have had an encounter with the Transformers in the far past, but have forgotten about it, save for some mentions in old books that have are considered myths. That or they are Transformers themselves in their beast modes, having forgotten about their robot modes, or that they ever were robots.

[[WMG: The place was founded by the Transformers]]
Equestrian creation myths tell of shape-shifting metal giants with [[Film/{{Aladdin}} phenomenal comsic power]], perhaps even Unicron himself is somewhere out there.

[[WMG: Related to the above WMG, the Elements of Harmony are related to the Matrix of Leadership.]]

[[WMG: Twilight's library has access to [[http://wiki.lspace.org/wiki/L-space L-Space]].]]
This is kind of a no-brainer since Twilight is already an excellent practitioner of magic, and must have hundreds of books. Quite a few of them have to be magical in nature. Even the non-magical books have an influence, and the library is already BiggerOnTheInside. Time will tell if Twilight Sparkle will be visited by a certain [[{{Discworld}} Librarian]]...

[[WMG: Building on the above, Equestria is on another {{Discworld}}]]
Certain elements of both worlds are similar as is, such as the moon ''and'' sun orbiting the planet, magic seems to work on similar principles (i.e. everything being magic just not able to use it), and they both have a similar mix of mythical, fantastical and mundane species. It's been established that there are other worlds on the back of elephants riding turtles, so there could be an [=DiscEquestria=] out there. This would make other elements match up to: Celestia and Luna being gods, Luna's smaller because she's a small god since people stopped worshiping her while on the moon, Discord may be one of the nicer entities from the Dungeon Dimensions, Canterlot is their version of Cori Celeste (and the mountian it's on the Hub) and so on. Perhaps Ponies just haven't been up to the Rim yet, so don't know how flat their world is.
[[WMG: Equestria is a Shadow within the [[BookOfAmber Amberverse]].]]
On her way to deliver the Jewel of Judgment to [[spoiler: Random]] during the climax of ''The Courts of Chaos'', the Unicorn from whom the Amberites are descended stops and rests in a fast-time Shadow where a few years pass as minutes in "objective" time; though she intended to simply rest and regain her strength, it turned out some of the local equines were at least as charming as [[spoiler: Dworkin]], and some progeny get left behind. Some time later the Courts of learn of a Shadow inhabited by sentient horses with Amberite blood on the distaff side, and a Lord of Chaos named Discord is assigned to monitor the situation.

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 [[spoiler: Merlin]] stops by. Since he and [[spoiler: 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 [[spoiler: 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, [[spoiler: 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 [[spoiler: 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''.

[[WMG:Equestria is on [[{{Kirby}} Pop Star]]]]
* 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.

[[WMG: Equestria is the distant future of Disney/{{Hercules}}.]]
Long ago, during a golden age of powerful gods and extraordinary heroes (the greatest and strongest being Hercules), a terrible set of events occurred. First, Hercules, having lived his mortal life, died and joined the gods, but his dear friend Pegasus was left behind. Worse, without its grand hero, ancient Greece fell to a series of natural disasters and unnatural monsters. Perhaps this was when Discord, the grand spirit of Chaos, came about and challenged the gods; or, perhaps the combined forces of monsterkind snuffed out mankind, and so threatened godkind.

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 SchizoTech of their human forebears, and what remained of the palace that had stood upon Mount Olympus was converted into a grand pegasus capital, Cloudsdale.

[[WMG: The "population of ponies back in the paleopony period" that was afflicted with true Cutie Pox are the ancestors of [[StoryOfTheBlanks the ponies of Sunny Town]].]]
That would explain why the town is so paranoid about cutie marks that [[spoiler: they kill anypony that gets theirs]]. There were ponies long in their past that experienced Cutie Pox first-hand, so over time the story got twisted so that they thought it was a curse. The writers have given us a potential canon explanation for StoryOfTheBlanks.

[[WMG: Equestria is a [[GeniusTheTransgression bardo.]]]]
* 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."

[[WMG: Equestria is in TheMatrix]]
Specifically, it's one of the "paradise" versions of the Matrix intended to keep its occupants content. This one seems to be working.
* 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 AIs 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 AI 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 AI 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.

[[WMG: Equestria is a region/faction in the world of Fallout.]]
Before the Great War, the North Commonwealth was deemed too sparsely populated to merit vaults of its own. As a result, most humans in this region arrived in vaults elsewhere. During the War, China and the USSR did not subject this region to the heavy bombing of others, knowing its low population and empty grasslands would be a waste of missiles. However, fallout from the bombs combined with the release of a biological agent similar to the FEV mutated the feral Mustangs in the region, making them
* Small and ponylike
* Rainbow-colored
* Occasional development of horns and wings
* Moderately intelligent
This moderate intelligence evolved into full sapience, and the ponies formed many small tribes. The most powerful tribe was one of rare horned-and-winged ponies, and this tribe went on to conquer all of the region, forming the Equestrian Monarchy. Celestia and Luna are descendents of the original monarchy, and all information about their mythical status as well as Equestria's founding was made up by their Propaganda Ministry. The non-pony monsters seen throughout the series are mutants of various sorts. In particular, Spike is an intelligent deathclaw like those found in Fallout 2's Vault 13. The gender discrepancy amongst the ponies is a combination of a somewhat-matriarchal society under Celestia and the drafting of most male ponies into the army, which defends against attack of the Equestrian borderlands by human factions such as Caesar's Legion, the NCR, and the Enclave. Most ponies within the Equestrian heartland have never heard of this strife, and merrily follow their leaders. This theory also explains the Scizo Tech prevalent in both Fallout and MLP.

[[WMG: Equestria is a [[{{TabletopGame/Warhammer40000}} former Daemon World of Tzeentch now taken by Nurgle]].]]
Okay...

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 LighterAndSofter Chaos Gods. Discord is the most obvious, being chaotic, unpredictable and insane (Tzeentch); Windigos (I know about them from TVTropes 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.

[[WMG: Ponies were a failed experiment by the race that created [[{{TabletopGame/Warhammer40000}} the Orks to combat the Necrons]].]]
Ponies were the first effort to create a battle race to combat the necrons. They illustrate some of the traits that would later by incorporated into the Orks such as innate magic (which explains how Pinkie Pie can 'just be Pinkie Pie': she's channeling a prototype form of WAGGGGH! energy and much like Orks, she just does does things because she thinks they should work that way). A cutie mark is a genetic stamp of sort indicating the pony in question's society role to be discovered over time. One can presume if the Brain Boys kept this gimmick in their later project, Meks would have cutie marks of wrenches and trukks.

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.

[[WMG: Equestria shares a universe with the ''FirebringerTrilogy'']]
* Unicorns are...well, unicorns, mostly Plainsdwellers (hence the descriptive names). Earth ponies are wild ''[[CallARabbitASmeerp 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 [[spoiler:the [[HybridMonster weird hybrid descendants]] of [[InterspeciesRomance 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...
** [[WingedUnicorn 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 [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence officially transcend]], anyway. They almost invariably have {{metamorphos|is}}ed 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 unicorn who happens to have been born with functional wings). [[spoiler:Most are scions of the line of Halla.]] There are never more than a few of them at a time, and most are {{chessmaster}}s to some degree. [[spoiler: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'']].
* [[spoiler:At least one of the [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTheManeCast Mane Six]] (guess who!) is herself a direct descendant of Halla.]]
* Cutie marks are connected to {{truename}}s 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 [[FaunsAndSatyrs 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.

[[WMG: Equestria shares a universe with ''The Heavenly Horse from the Outermost West'']]

[[WMG: The four MyLittlePony generations are of one [[TheMultiverse Multiverse]]]]
The universes of each gen are named (using "World" for the planet because we don't know the name of the planet):
* World 1: The universe of G1, which contains the MyLittlePonyTVSpecials, MyLittlePonyAndFriends, and MyLittlePonyTales.
* World 2: The universe of G2, which contains ''MyLittlePonyFriendshipGardens'' (a video game, not a TV series, but still takes place in this universe).
* World 3: The universe of [[MyLittlePonyG3 G3]].
* World 4: The universe of G4, which contains ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''.
There are also other universes that will be explored as new generations are created.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Ponies]]
[[WMG: Equestrian ponies' hooves are different in form from real life hooves.]]
Why ponies seems to grab a lot of things with hooves? You may have noticed that their hooves seems to have a lot more possibilities of motion than horses' in real life. This can be explained if we imagine the cornified structure of an equestrian hoof to be a lot smaller than real life ones; thanks to this, there's a lot more space for muscles, allowing ponies to move their hooves (at least the fore-ones) in an almost similar way to human hands. it's also worth of consideration that equestrian arms and legs seems to have a lot more of meat and less skinny than real life horses, which may contribute on their variegate motion system.
* They have little dewclaws in front like a ''Merychippus'', only nailless and webbed to the main body of the foreleg. We don't see those because of the simplistic animation.
* And that, together with the small cornified structure, explains why they have more motion than a normal horse. As for why bigger ponies (like Big Mac and Shining Armor) seems to have normal size nails, is because.... well, since humans bigger (and more muscolar) than normal ones have bigger hands too, same goes for Equestrian ponies. That doesn't mean they have less motion than normals.

[[WMG: Alicorns are the Progenitor Race of all Ponies]]
Less of a WMG, and more of a serious theory, This Troper believes Zebras, Donkeys, and other equines in show have the same common ancestor species, similar in a way to the earliest species under the Homo genus for humans, though this is probably obvious. I call this ''Equus progenitori''. b) following this is theory, ''Equus caballio'' (Ponies) are a species, unlike Ponies in the real world, which are merely a variety of ''Equus ferus caballus'' (Domesticated Horse). ''Equus alicornus'' would be the progenitor ancestor race of modern ponies, Celestia and Luna representing some of the only living ones. the varieties are simple genetic markers that all ponies carry, but not it's very rare or impossible for a modern pony to show genetic markers of all three "breeds" although it is technically possible for an Alicorn to be born to any other ponies, if the Genetic markers expressed properly. The following is the taxonomic hierarchy:
* Genus - Equus
** Common Ancestor - Equus progenitori sapiens
** Species Zebra - Equus zebra sapiens
** Species Donkey - Equus asinus sapiens
** Species Alicorn - Equus alicornus sapiens
*** Progenitor Subspecies of Modern Ponies - Equus caballio sapiens
**** Earth Ponies - Equus caballio terra (also known as Equus terra)
**** Unicorns - Equus caballio monoceros (also known as Equus monoceros)
**** Pegasi - Equus caballio pegasi (also known as Equus pegasi)
[[WMG: Equestrian ponies have no fur: they have colored skin.]]
In "The Best Night Ever", Applejack said that ponies are always naked (when they not wear dresses, of course). Now as we all know horses and ponies, just like any other animal, have their coats who works like natural clothes for them, so in theory the are ''never'' naked. Plus there's also the fact that Equestrian ponies can make "additional fur" (aka beard) to grow up in their face, which doesn't make much sense for animals covered by fur (well, unless for some species like lions or sheeps, but not horse). So the only natural conclusion is: ponies in Equestria have skins of varios colors, not fur, which also explains the need of clothes.
* Jossed: Snips and Snails had embarassing bald patches of skin showing after they got glued together.
* Don't know if it counts as canon, but the lyrics of "Equestria Girls" mention "furry coats."
* In regard to the Jossing above, perhaps ponies have very fine/short hairs similar to that of whales and similar ocean mammals, causing it to blend into itself almost non-noticeably while allowing manes, tails, and facial hair to form as well.

[[WMG: The Ponies of Equestria are omnivorous.]]
The whole vegetarian thing is a cultural tradition. Evidence for predatory capability is in their physiology. First, position of eyes on the head indicate excellent binocular vision. Depth perception is of much more limited use to a herbivore, especially one more adapted to plains. Second, highly developed jaws. The ponies have demonstrated extreme mandibular strength by dragging ropes and other heavy objects with their teeth. Applejack and Rainbow Dash have both demonstrated sufficient jaw strength to support their entire body weight. This might indicate that the ponies have enough strength to bring down large prey, on the other hand this would be of little to no use for a herbivorus life style. Third, the ponies have demonstrated the ability to digest more protein than a normal horse. Pinky Pie has on hand an egg quiche, and presumably uses eggs in cooking. This indicates a high tolerance, perhaps even a requirement for protein.
* Well, the jaw thing can be argued that they needed to develop that way because they use their mouths in place of hands.
* Have you seen a horse's mouth? They can still deliver a nasty bite. Their teeth are not designed for slicing prey, but grinding down tough plant material.
* Possible reason is that the ponies in Equestria ''ARE'' omnivorous, it's that if they ate meat. They'll go under a bloodthirsty rage. [[http://ponibooru.413chan.net/post/view/5966?search=nightmare_fuel disturbing picture dead ahead]]...
* [[http://sadpanda.us/images/817531-B1OGUVM.png what looks like a ham or bologna sandwich on the left, next to the cake]]
** It's probably beetroots (there ''are'' pink ones). Or rose petals. After all, we know they like to eat roots and flowers.
* That said, there ''have'' been accounts of [[TruthInTelevision real, live horses]] showing indications towards omnivory. Who's to say this wasn't all the more true at some point in the history of sapient, civilized mini-horses, especially considering that predator eye placement of theirs?

[[WMG: All pegasi have a sort of elemental affiliation that gives them a trail at high speed.]]
For instance, Rainbow Dash has a rainbow, while Soarin' has a thundercloud and Spitfire has a smoke trail. This is why nobody has ever done a Sonic Rainboom before Dash - as Pinkie said, only a "Pegasus pony like Rainbow Dash", that is,a rainbow pegasus could cause it.

[[WMG: Ponies are Programs.]]
Equestria's world is a node in a {{Reboot}}/{{Tron}} universe inside a computer. That's why ponies have to move the sun and the moon, control the weather and generally micromanage their entire environment. But unlike Reboot or Tron, they don't know it.

[[WMG: The ponies of Equestria are semi-divine servitors created to uphold the natural laws.]]
All the ponies have some manner of innate talent, whether magical (Fluttershy can [[TheBeastmaster control animals]], Pegasi control the weather) or mundane like Apple Jack's skill at herding animals.
We're told that the world outside of Equestria does not require the maintenance Equestria does; animals take care of themselves, as does the weather. But this is not a sure thing. In case of a breakdown of the natural laws, Celestia created servants that might keep things running smoothly so she herself could focus on fixing the underlying problem. She made Equestria exempt from some of these laws so that the ponies would not forget the skills required. The ponies with mundane skills are to collect the practical knowledge of civilization so that even if all life outside of Equestria is destroyed through some cosmic SNAFU, rebuilding will be possible. They were given free will because Celestia and Luna needed the company.
* Ah, but is the Everfree Forest the norm (suggesting all lands beyond Equestria work that way) or an aberration (suggesting you could circumnavigate the Forest while remaining in Equestria)?

[[WMG: The ponies of Equestria are evolved from ''[[SystemShock System Shock 2]]'''s Annelids.]]
Exaltation of harmony and fear of discord? Check. Advanced psionic abilities? Check. No advanced technology like computers? Check. Now all that's needed is a [[CreationMyth Creation Myth]] where a Machine Mother gives life to the first ponies, tries to destroy them, and is killed by her own pawn.

[[WMG: The ponies of Equestria are [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]].]]
[[FridgeBrilliance Look at the evidence.]] They [[WeatherControlMachine control the weather and the landscape.]] They've [[AllAnimalsAreDomesticated domesticated animals]] to the point where said animals have [[TheFairFolk forgotten how to take care of themselves.]] [[HumansAreCthulhu (Sound familiar?)]] Their society is [[PerfectPacifistPeople ludicrously advanced]] compared to humans. They even have [[FunctionalMagic Functional Magic]] [[CrystalDragonJesus for Celestia's sake!]] The ponies never seem to question any of this, and are horrified at the thought of nature taking care of itself. [[CaptainObvious Obviously,]] their technology has advanced to a level in which [[ClarkesThirdLaw the ponies themselves don't fully understand how it works]], it "just is". (Kinda like the attitude many humans in developed countries have towards advancements such as computers, medicine, and and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking democracy.]]) This perfectly explains all the [[SchizoTech Schizo Tech.]] It's [[ForScience SCIENCE]], people!
* Which probably means that they are all just one disease away from a global plague.
** And they know it: they are deathly afraid of Cutie Pox when Applebloom gets it.

[[WMG: "Pegacorns" were the SufficientlyAdvancedAlien {{Precursors}}; the rest are their descendants.]]
The singular nature of Princess Celestia and her sister raises a few important questions. They would appear to be an ancient breed of pony that has evolved into the smaller, shorter-lived ponies of today; but if "pegacorns" are so long-lived, why haven't more of the same generation survived into the present day? If they were killed off in a war or something, how did a couple of survivors get to rule over all the other kinds? Most importantly, how could any ponies predate their own solar cycle?

What would make sense is if horses with both horns and wings were a highly advanced race of interstellar nomads who made it their mission to use their cosmic powers to terraform planets and seed them with life. During the founding of Equestria, the aliens could have interbred with the most compatible of the native fauna to produce generations of "little ponies" that would inherit diluted forms of their powers, enough to look after the local environment. As part of their tradition, after some time the pegacorns left the planet to seek out a new one, leaving behind only a few of their own as guardians to keep the big things like the orbits and rotations of the planets in balance. This could be because they are very vulnerable to losing their sanity and fracturing their personalities from boredom, such as what happened to Luna.

We know Princess Celestia enjoys a good prank; it's likely to be one of the ways she keeps her sanity in check. But Celestia's MagnificentBastard side may be part of a serious plan to set up groups of ponies on tests to see if they can harness forgotten technologies like the Elements of Harmony and eventually govern the planet all on their own someday. Additionally, Celestia's extraterrestial nature would explain why she insists on keeping the title "Princess" after so many years as sole ruler: The real King or Queen of her society is still out there, only on some other planet. And her interest in Twilight Sparkle's reports on friendship may be because Celestia is compiling a sort of cultural/anthropological study on what sort of people the pegacorns have produced, and a personal account from one of them is just what's needed to make it really convincing.

[[WMG: All ponies are born as winged unicorns.]]
There are actually no different types of ponies. Specially selected and indoctrinated midwife ponies secretly remove wings and/or horns from the newborns. This is done to keep the pony-society stratified with the apparently god-like Celestia on top.

The operation also affects the growth and life-span of the ponies in a negative way.
* Alternatively, all ponies go through winged unicorn phase in utero, but then hormones/magic suppressed the development of wings, horn or both.
** Cerapters aren't ''that'' uncommon. However, it's vanishingly rare for both horn and wings to develop properly. (This explains why Cadance doesn't seem any too powerful; she ''isn't'' a PhysicalGoddess, just one of those lucky few.) As an excessively deformed hornbud will never grow into a proper magical focus (making such foals a danger to themselves and others), and stunted wings are no good for flight, these are amputated before anything tragic can happen.
* Possibly jossed. When the Cakes had their twins in "Baby Cakes", one was a unicorn and one was a pegasus pony. It was explained that one of the parents had a unicorn ancestor and the other parent had a pegasus ancestor. If Celestia wanted to keep the ponies down by taking off wings and horns, why would they get the children of Earth ponies and only remove either the horn or the wings, and not both? That just seems weird.

[[WMG: The ponies' hooves are magnetic.]]
This is why they can sometimes pick up things with their hooves, and it it also explains how Applejack was able to grab onto Twilight's hooves when she was hanging off the side of a cliff in the second episode.
* To paraphrase MysteryScienceTheater3000, "And if their hooves were metal, that would mean something."
** And their hooves are made of metal.
** As long as two things are magnetic they can attract eachother, regardless of if they are metal or not.
* Earlier versions of MLP toys had a magnet in one of the front hooves on each pony to enable them to interact with accessories
* Maybe they're not naturally magnetic, but they wear magnetized horseshoes? We can't see them in the show for the same reason we can't see their unmentionables.

[[WMG: Ponies are elemental creatures, and we've only seen three so far.]]
Earth ponies are... just that. Pegasus ponies are air elemental. Unicorn ponies embody either Fire (the fire of intellect, the "electric" nature of magic, Twilight ''igniting'' when sufficiently frustrated...) or Aether/Void/Mana. This either leaves one gap (Water) or two (Fire and Water), depending on how catch-'em-all-y the show wants to get. Celestia and Luna don't manifest sea pony traits because they've only been seen above water, and their hind legs would become a tail and fins under. Either tallness is the "hat" for fire ponies, or like earth ponies they're not visibly magical.
* Water elemental would be those mermaid ones that the fandom seems to hate so much.
* Try the PowerTrio of body (earth), mind (unicorn), and spirit (pegasus).
* Ponies are based on the five platonic elements: Unicorns are aether, pegasi are air, sea ponies are water, earth ponies are earth (duh), and fire is represented by Zebras.
* The three races of pony are all made up of a mix two elements in varying proportions. Pegasus ponies are wind (Dash) and water (Fluttershy), earth ponies are Fire (Pinkie) and earth (AJ, or especially Big Mac), and unicorn ponies are made of sunlight (Rarity) and moonlight (Trixie).
* Another alternative: Alicorns embody Aether, as it's a fifth element that combines the four.
* ANOTHER Another alternative: there's a popular theory that Nightmare Moon created a breed of ponies that lives on the moon. these embody Aether

[[WMG: Unicorns are naturally predisposed to having mental disorders.]]
Maybe it's due to utilizing magic through an appendage that's so close to their brain, but it seems like most of the unicorn cast members appear somewhat... neurotic. There are several claims of Twilight having Aspergers, Rarity being SuperOCD and even Sweetie Belle being a crayon short of a box. Even minor and background unicorns come off as a little unhinged, Snips and Snails appear slow, Trixie's a little over-dramatic and Lyra's well... Lyra.
* So, are we going with the "Pinkie pie is secretly a unicorn" one down there too, she's got a serious case of [[AttentionDeficitOohShiny ADHD]] and maybe a bit of [[TheSchizophreniaConspiracy schizophrenia]]
** Not necessarily. "All that is gold does not glitter. All that glitters is not gold." Just because Pinkie's nuts doesn't mean she's a unicorn. She's just fourth-wall-cracking-bonkers.
** As of Season 2 Episode 3, "Lesson Zero", this theory is gaining more credence. Twilight goes absolutely batshit over the course of the episode!

[[WMG: Earth Ponies are capable of Necromancy and life-stealing.]]
With enough practice, an earth pony can twist and corrupt her/his special connection to the land and life to perform a sort of magic involving raising the dead, draining life force, inflicting disease, causing drought and grossly altering animal behavior. Understandably, this magic is forbidden and its mere existence denied by the authorities.

[[WMG: Pegasus ponies don't fly with their wings.]]
They fly with magic. They can extend their flight magic to things they tow(like chariots, or moving vans), so they fly with them instead of dangling below them. Part of their magic allows pegasus ponies to walk on and manipulate clouds. Their magic, their flight magic at least, comes from their wings, much like the unicorns' magic comes from their horns. That's why Rainbow Dash couldn't fly when Applejack tied up her wings.
* WordOfGod confirms that pegasus and earth ponies have magical powers. While she doesn't say that flight is magical it's a safe assumption to make.
* As an extension to this it is possible that in most cases magic is providing the lift. In those cases the wings are merely acting as stabilizers and forward propulsion. We see evidence of this in Scootaloo, who has yet to master the magic required for lift but is able to use her wings for forward propulsion. Only certain Pegasi can use magic for forward propulsion, the Wonderbolts and Rainbow Dash would be examples. This is visible as the magical trails these Pegasi leave behind.This magic might also explain the Sonic Rainboom. Ponies are not very aerodynamic, so additional magic would be used to improve the aerodynamics of the Pegasus. Additional magical force would be required as forward velocity increases to prevent the Pegasus from being shredded by air resistance. After breaching the sound barrier there is a marked decrease in air resistance, so the magical energy would need to be rapidly dissipated in the form of the rainbow explosion witnessed.

[[WMG: Unicorn Magic has something to do with [[AleisterCrowley Thelema]].]]
Twilight Sparkle, who is explicitly stated to have Magic as her special talent, has a Cutie Mark in the shape of a unicursal hexagram. Although it's also used in some old Hinduist traditions, the unicursal hexagram became popular through Aleister Crowley and Thelema.
* I though it was the image of the Elements of Harmony
** Thinking of it, this makes sense. It's a six-pointed star and we have six Elements. However, it's still a star in the shape of an unicursal hexagram.

[[WMG: Pegasus magic is not flight, but rather InertialDampening.]]
Pegasi are not what you would call aerodynamic, and routinely pull off maneuvers that would clearly be impossible through physics alone. It's natural to imagine that their flight is boosted by a magical push, but just adding a force vector and calling it "magic" leaves a lot of the questions raised by the feats they demonstrate unanswered. One possibility that goes farther to explain what we see is that instead of adding force, pegasus magic creates a field that reduces or nullifies the mass of the pegasus and any freight that she may be carrying.

Note that cloud-walking and sculpting is not explained by this; even if a pegasus reduced her mass such that the matter of a cloud was a physical obstacle, that wouldn't make her able to pick it up and manipulate it, and at any rate the air itself would be as much of an obstacle. This also implies that the main force that a flying pegasus is struggling against is not gravity but air resistance.

Some evidence:
* Rainbow Dash's mass is at least on the same order as Applejack's, or she'd have gone flying when she tried to hoof-wrassle.
* Items hauled by pegasi appear to float, but fall plenty fast when dropped.
** If the mass does not all return instantaneously, that explains how the frog that Fluttershy dropped, not to mention Twilight Sparkle, survived "Feeling Pinkie Keen".
* Rainbow Dash, Rarity and three Wonderbolts survived a near-right angle turn at supersonic (and possibly superluminal, given the Discworld magical field theory) speed. If they were close to massless due to Rainbow Dash's magic, the extreme G-forces would not have affected them.
* Fluttershy seems to have imperfect control over this ability. In episode 2, after a burst of mass compensation when she and Rainbow Dash catch Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy undercompensates for Twilight's mass, because she's used to carrying smaller mammals. In "The Cutie Mark Chronicles", even though she couldn't gain control of her falling, she was able to reduce her mass enough that a swarm of butterflies was enough to break her fall.
* When Rainbow Dash is affected by the Poison Joke and her wings are on upside-down, she's still able to move her own weight around. This is particularly visible when she's on the floor and apparently thrust-vectoring downward into it, but it causes her to scoot across the floor as if she weighs nothing.
* The Elements of Harmony, in their aspect as big stone balls, behave as if they're very heavy when Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy carry them. Are they magic-resistant?

[[WMG: Ponies are actually born with their Cutie marks.]]
But they fade shortly after birth, in the hour or so they have them, the parents are given a glimpse of their child in their prime, Then, they give their foal a name which corresponds to this vision. Since the name usually goes along with the cutie mark give or take a little (We have yet to meet a big, rude, scary pony named "Cuddles"), it's sort of a hint the parents are giving their child.
* Seeing as this theory doesn't really apply to characters like Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, and others, This Troper has an alternative theory for the names. at a Ponies Cutecineira, a Pony has the choice to choose a new name for themselves based on their cutie marks and special talent.

[[WMG: Ponies lay and come from [[WhaleEgg eggs]].]]
While LaurenFaust said that Ponies are born via mammalian means, the platypus is a mammal as well and it lays eggs, so it's possible that My Little Ponies lay eggs. [[http://nyhacker.org/~sirtophat/egg.html This video also proves it.]]
* She said they reproduce by ''typical'' mammalian means. Egg laying isn't typical for mammals. Also, Lyra Heartstrings was merely trapped in that egg. She didn't originate from it.
* Pinkie laid one (although it was obviously a gag.)
** And quite possibly simply a ''candy'' egg, [[FridgeLogic considering the occasion]].

[[WMG: Cutie Marks are not genetic.]]
Less of a guess then an observation, but Cutie Marks don't appear to be genetic in nature so it might not be accurate to assume that somepony is related to somepony else by cutie marks alone.

[[WMG: Cutie Marks are not determined until they appear.]]
That is to say, ponies don't just find out what their special talent is, rather, they develop it when they do something they like and really put their effort into it, thus ensuring every pony will be happy with his/her cutie mark.\\
The marks often (but not always) fit their names because of outside influence, namely their families. For example, the Apple family have apple-related names and cutie marks, because they're from the beginning taught the apple farming trade and if the pony doesn't have anything in particular against doing that, they're likely to get an apple mark and continue the family business.

[[WMG: The secret to pony magic is that keratin, the material hair and horns are made of is an excellent conductor of it.]]
What are feathers made of? Mostly keratin. What are manes and tails made of? Keratin. What are horns made of? Keratin with a bone core. Now, bone is also a good conductor of magic, which strengthens a pony's skeleton (which explains how a pony like Applejack was able to fall 40 feet several times, landing on her head or rump without breaking her neck or spine). This also allows ponies to use PrehensileHair to some effect. This also allows pegasi to wield some form of magic in their wings and coats, and also explains why ponies can use things that seem to require hands with their hooves.

[[WMG: All types of ponies have potential to use some types of magic.]]
But only unicorns are capable of conciously controlling it with such precision. This theory explains Pinkie Pie's "Pinkie Sense", as well as Rainbow Dash's Sonic Rainboom, the fact some of the other Wonderbolts have been seen trailing smoke or lightning when they fly, and how pegasus ponies can walk on and move clouds as if they were solid objects. (hey, if it requires a spell for non-pegasus ponies to walk on clouds, surely there's some magic involved).
* Confirmed. Pegasus ponies' weather manipulation (and probably their flight) is magic-based, and earth ponies influence plants and animals.
* The Pinkie Sense is still unexplained though.
** Pinkie Sense is probably part of Pinkie's ToonPhysics, her ability to do whatever she wants (even to the point of violating normal laws of reality) provided it's funny, makes for a good gag, or is in someway humorous to the ponies and/or the audience. Though she can't control her Pinkie Sense and it seems to come and go as it chooses (probably related to when it would be humorous for her to have said ability). As for how Pinkie Pie has ToonPhysics when none of the other ponies do is a different question. One we will probably never know the answer for.
*** Her special talent is making people smile (usually via parties), right? AND her Element of Harmony is Laughter, even. I think we can say that her ToonPhysics come from one of the two, presumably the former since she apparently exhibited Pinkie Sense before getting her Element.

[[WMG: Cutie marks are meaningless.]]
A random symbol will appear on a pony's flank when that pony attains physical maturity, but that symbol has [[InkblotTest no meaning beyond what each pony chooses to ascribe it]]. For example, Cheerilee, in her lecture on cutie marks, tells her pupils that her own mark, three smiling daisies, represents her goal of helping her students bloom with knowledge, but she also says that she had already decided to become a teacher. If she had decided to become a gardener or florist, or any of a dozen other professions, might not the same mark have been just as appropriate? Or take Twilight Sparkle: her cutie mark is the exact same as Photo Finish's, yet in Twilight's case, it represents her affinity for magic, while in Photo Finish's, it represents a camera flash. Same symbol, wildly different meanings. Rainbow Dash's lightning bolt could just as easily be said to represent her job of manipulating the weather as her love for speed and racing. Many ponies may have decided to go into certain careers or pursue certain interests because of what their cutie marks were, instead of the other way around. In short, cutie marks have no meaning other than what a given pony chooses to assign it.
* In "Cutie Pox," Apple Bloom gets a (false) Cutie Mark when she does a trick where, by spinning a metal ring around her tail really fast, allows her to fly like a helicopter. The Mark takes the form of a pair of grey disks with lines going down from the center. When she gets down, though, it is interpreted as meaning that she has skill at spinning plates. So Cutie Marks are at least somewhat up for interpretation0.

[[WMG: Ponies in the MLP universe live longer than RealLife ponies.]]
Many discussions about the show and the setting that bring up the lifespan act as if the ponies in the show live only as long as real life ponies. My theory is that they live LONGER. Think about it: average human lifespan is much longer than it used to be because we've spent hundreds of years creating treatments and cures for HUMAN ailments. But in a world with a population of sentient ponies with many human-like behaviors and customs, it's likely that they've been spending years coming up with treatments for PONY ailments, allowing them to live longer than ponies in real life.
* In addition, they've got MAGIC. They can probably cure anything but "some of the more advanced forms of death", like being devoured and digested by a dragon. That's how Twilight survived having an anvil and a piano dropped on top of her--just about every bone in her body was broken and internal organs squished into paste, but unicorn doctors were able to mend her anyway. Bandages and wheelchairs... I got nothin'.
** This would also explain why dragons, capable of eating ponies, are considered so terrifying: being fully digested is not something unicorn magic can cure.
* All but confirmed in "Family Appreciation Day," given some information revealed in "Winter Wrap Up." It's stated that the tradition has been in place for "hundreds of years," and this is presumably after Ponyville was founded. Seeing as Granny Smith was there for the founding of Ponyville, it means that she's several hundred years old. It makes sense, seeing as there are only a handful of youngsters - it seems that ponies live ridiculously long lives and don't reproduce frequently, keeping the population more or less constant. It might also explain some of the issues with VagueAge -- ponies that might in fact be decades apart in terms of age would appear more or less similar.
* In season 2 finale, Fake Cadence compares Pinkie Pie's wedding reception plan to six-year-old's birthday party, which seems to confirm this - if they had a regular horses' lifespans, six years of age would be a perfect time to get married.

[[WMG: The ponies of Equestria evolved from prehistoric horses.]]
Horses are to Equestrian ponies as [[OneMillionBC neanderthals]] are to modern-day humans. Thus, the reason we don't see any horses on the show is because they're all extinct.
* Not an accurate comparison, not all modern humans are descended from neanderthals, and those who are are hybrids. Ponies were bred from horses through inbreeding of a single species.
* Beat me to this guess

[[WMG: The ponies were once a slave race.]]
Long ago, the Diamond Dogs ruled over Equestria with an iron paw, using the ponies for manual labor. Earth ponies were used for digging and hauling wagons, unicorns were forced to use their magic powers for gem-finding, and pegasi were used as flying mounts for personal transportation. One day, an alicorn were born- Celestia and Luna's mother- and given to the tyrannical queen of the Diamond Dogs as her personal pets. After many years of seeing her kind enslaved and abused, the alicorn overthrew the queen and revolted along with the rest of the ponies, forcing the Diamond Dogs to live underground in the very mines they once forced ponies to dig in.
* Except that in "Hearths Warming Eve", it was clear that the ponies (who were in charge of their previous land) migrated to what eventually became Equestria. Given what was said, this was before Discord or the Princesses came into the picture. They really couldn't have done that if they were enslaved; even if they had been, it would have been by the Windigoes, not by the Diamond Dogs.

[[WMG: Alicorns are [[CelestialParagonsAndArchangels celestial paragons]].]]
While Celestia and Luna do move the heavenly bodies, they're treated more like special royalty than gods. Not to mention, they're capable of having distant relatives among mortals (e.g. Blueblood, Celestia's great-great-great-great-great-great-etc. nephew via her mother). There may be all manner of alicorns amongst the heavens, but Celestia and Luna are some of the few who chose to live amongst the mortals.

[[WMG:Earth Pony magic connects them to the earth, literally.]]
* In addition to being able to bless the land and yield food, Earth Ponies can anchor themselves to the ground, providing them with enhanced traction in concert with their natural strength, and not allowing them to be knocked off their feet through brute force. If an Earth Pony specialized in it, they could feasibly walk on inclines, vertical surfaces, or even completely upside down like any other plane, so long as they were still walking on Earth.

[[WMG: The ponies are a colony of terraformers.]]
From the start, Celestia and Luna made sure that the planet spun at the correct speed, and disagreement over it lead to their conflict. It's been several generations for most ponies, who can't recall their origins, but most jobs involve creating an Earth-like environment artificially, up to and including the feeding and wrangling of "wild" animals. Equestria is the area that's reached a desired state, even if it still requires maintenance from the ponies. The Everfree Forest marks the edge of their efforts, as Fluttershy says that the "animals take care of themselves" and thus a self-sufficient ecology can be found. Zebras are an intelligent native species, just different enough from ponies to provoke an UncannyValley reaction when they're first introduced to one. Parasprites are another native species which is normally controlled by predators in the wild areas of the planet, but acts like an invasive species when introduced to Equestria (when Celestia was called away to deal with an infestation at the end of the episode, it was because she's old enough to be considered an expert on the native species of the planet). Dragons are an interesting case, as they are a native species that's somewhat socialized, and Spike is an early attempt at domesticating one.
* The original inhabitants were nonsentient Draconequi that produced a [[SpiceOfLife hallucinogenic substance that gave Ponies the ability to navigate interstellar spacecraft]]. After the planet was colonized by the [[TheEmpire Empire of Pony]], Celestia and Luna became alicorns by consuming gratuitous amounts of it, then "ordered" the local environment in a way that caused the Draconequi -- other than one smart freak -- to go die out, but made it more hospitable to Ponies as part of a prescience-informed [[BatmanGambit millenia-long plan]] to ensure that Ponykind never goes extinct. Dragons are (so far unsuccessful) attempts to engineer Draconequi that can exist in the ordered environment.
** And with that I think we've managed to cross over MLP with every major 'verse in literary history.
* In light of Hearth's Warming Eve, this can be amended thusly: The first colonists seeded were the three core tribes of ponies fighting against the chaos of the world they lived upon. The intelligence that was Discord allowed them around because it was adding one new chaotic element, and they fought among themselves, too. At the end of the play, though, we see an Equestrian flag displaying alicorns. Alicorns were not the root of ponykind. Alicorns were prophesied to emerge, a second phase of the terraforming project that would create a unified administration once the pony population was large enough. Once Luna and Celestia appeared on the scene and gave ponies real direction, Discord took notice, leading to the confrontation that utilized the Elements of Harmony. In the years that followed, Luna was banished, but because Celestia can organize all of Equestria, no more alicorns are needed from the population at this time. Phase three, once the planet is fully managed, will mean contacting the seeding population, whomever those precursors might be, so that they can live with the ponies who manage their paradise planet.

[[WMG: Ponies who've lost their way badly enough can ''lose'' their cutie marks.]]
Twist gains a cutie mark in "Call of the Cutie", but every time she's appeared afterward, she's been a blank flank again. Maybe she doubted her commitment to candy-making severely enough that she turned from that path, lost her purpose in life, and her cutie mark disappeared?
* Wait, so even cannonically [[MyLittlePonyTheMentallyAdvancedSeries Twist is the worst pony?]]
* Considering that Applebloom seemed to have completely dropped Twist as a friend ever since she initially got her Cutie Mark, one wonders if that may be the catalyst for losing her way, or even that she may be purposely suppressing it. Applebloom did seem to be poor Twist's one and only friend.
* That could explain why that one farmer pony at the Grand Galloping Gala had no cutie mark - he can't have gone all that time without finding his special talent, could he?

[[WMG: There are no "Baby" ponies.]]
Like the horses we have here, Ponies are born relatively fully-formed. They start walking and talking soon after birth (Albeit mispronouncing things and stumbling some of the time) and when a pony is weened off it's mother's milk, it's enrolled in school. Here, more complex things like math and reading are taught and there are only three "Grades" Kindergarden, 1st grade and 2nd grade. Around second grade Ponies develop their cutie marks and begin the awkward growth spurts to turn them into adults. About a year after finishing puberty, the pony is ready to mate.
* Once a pony has his/her cutie mark, they can go into an apprenticeship in the field that their cutie mark has selected them for. It acts as a biological indicator of the pony's ideal career, or at least a general field, so schools only provide a general educational background useful to anypony. If this is the case, the other theories of Twilight Sparkle being in an advanced program overlap well, as she's continuing an apprenticeship under Princess Celestia when her peers have at least become journeyponies in their respective fields, with the possible exception of Pinkie Pie, who works for the bakery in an undefined capacity. This provides a tidy explanation for why she's at Sugarcube Corner rather than with her family.
* Pipsqueak the Pirate DOES manage to speak in complete sentences despite admitting to being less than one year old...
* '' '''UH-OH!''' ''
** {{Jossed}}, we've now seen a foal in "The Mysterious Mare Do Well", and it is cared for the same way as a real world human baby.
** [[IKnewIt Confirmed]]! In "Baby Cakes" Pound and Pumpkin Cake were walking, flying, using magic, and talking, all within a month of being born.
** That's easy enough to resolve: Clearly, the foal in the pram was less than a month old.

[[WMG: Unicorns are specifically vulnerable to compulsive disorders.]]
Twilight is obsessive-compulsive about organisation. Rarity is obsessive-compulsive about cleanliness and neatness. Trixie is narcissistic, compelled to speak about herself in the third person and promote herself at all times. Prince Blueblood has shown signs of orthorexia (compulsively ordered eating). The children aren't doing too badly, although Snips and Snails have an obsessive hero-worship of Trixie going on. Sweetie Belle seems to be the sanest unicorn on the show.

[[WMG: The "Cutie Pox plague" mentioned in Twilight's book is the canon explanation for StoryOfTheBlanks.]]
As read by Twilight, the Cutie Pox was a plague that caused ponies to suddenly get a bunch of cutie marks, and the ponies were forced to preform the talent each mark represents. If there was no known cure for it, and there were perhaps some bad marks as well that some ponies got, it's no wonder that in StoryOfTheBlanks, [[spoiler: the ponies of Sunny Town were paranoid about cutie marks. If one appeared, others might follow, so the Sunny Town residents figured it was best to kill off a pony that got a cutie mark before they went out of control and the plague spread]].

[[WMG: Cutie Pox isn't normally very serious.]]
The text Twilight read said it went away as mysteriously as it first appeared, so no one really knew what was going on. However the text doesn't make it out to have been terminal. Applebloom however took a massive concentration of the flower that causes the effect, making her case that much more serious.

[[WMG: Pegasi don't form families.]]
It's very strange, but we have extensive knowledge on Applejack and Rarity's families, and we know a bit about Twilight and Pinkie's families, but we know practically nothing about Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy's immediate family, we know even less about Scootaloo's. I don't even recall seeing any Pegasus families. But I hope this is proven wrong at some point...
* This is because young Pegasi are taken away from their families to work for the princess.
* Thunderlane and Rumble in "Hurricane Fluttershy" are two pegasus brothers. Still, it may be a strong trend.

[[WMG: Cutie marks are implanted by the princess to take away free will]]
After unfairly getting rid of Discord and taking over Equestria, Celestia created the cutie mark system so ponies can't have unique personalities.
* Huh... but the whole point of a cutie mark is to be ''unique'' sure, there are similar ones, or even repeats, but everypony assigns the meaning of them anyway.
** What I meant was, when a pony finds anything they are good at when they are elementary school age the princess sends out a neutralizing cutie mark representing the talent, and it makes it so that is what they are supposed to do forever.
*** But when a pony gets a cutie mark, it doesn't make it so their cutie mark talent is the only thing they can do. Many of the ponies have talents other than their "special one", and there isn't anything to imply that the "special" one is the only one they can make a living off of. For example, Scootaloo's special talent is scooter stunts, (even if she doesn't know it yet, it is obvious) but she's also a good dancer. Fluttershy is good with animals, but she's also great at sewing. Applejack may work on a farm, but she's also shown to be athletic and good at sports.
*** Given that Discord seems intent on causing as much pain as possible to everypony he meets, it's hardly "unfair" to take the kingdom from him.

[[WMG:Originally there were only Alicorns, but Discord split them into 3 races to get them to turn on each other.]]
Obviously his chaotic magi missed at least 2 of them.

[[WMG: The ponies in Equestria have a high female to male ratio as an evolutionary advantage.]]
At some point in their evolutionary history, survival became tough and food became scarce. To help the population remain afloat, the ponies evolved in a way that made it so colts born will be more likely female than male. Whenever a population needs to grow, it's generally more beneficial to have more females than males. One male can impregnate many females, but a female can only be pregnant with one males baby at a time. Even in humans, pregnant women with high-calorie diets have a greater chance of having sons while those with low-calorie diets are more likely to have daughters, for similar reasons: if the woman is eating less, the body will be more likely to believe that there is some kind of crisis going on that could hurt the population as a whole. This is the case for ponies, but just more extreme. Regardless of diet, ponies will be more likely to have fillies because of this evolutionary trait. While it isn't necessary at the current state of the pony population, it's an evolutionary remnant that still exists despite not serving much of a purpose.
* On that note, "stallion-swapping" happens a ''lot''; it's simply not spoken of often. And there's no stigma against single mothers.

[[WMG: Both wings and horns are recessive traits.]]
This would explain two earth ponies having a unicorn and a pegasus.
* That's not how recessives work, both parents need to have the allele for offspring to inherit a recessive trait. More likely it's multi-factorial (biologist-speak for "it's complicated").
** It's also might because all ponies have Earth, Pegasus, and Unicorn ancestors in the past. Applejack and the others didn't know because they never mated before. One of the hidden truths for the ponies to unite during Hearth Warming's Eve was because each tribes was in danger of inbreeding, so all three interbreed over the years as a result. So, it's perfectly normal for a Brown Earth Stallion and a Gray Pegasus Mare to mate, and give birth to a Lavender Unicorn Filly.
*** Time lord genetics might further complicate things, though.
** It's also possible that the unicorn and pegasus alleles cancel each other out to result in earth-pony status, which would be why alicorns are so rare and special, since the obvious approach of simply combining the chromosomes in the pair would not produce an alicorn. Combined with a third allele that is supposed to code for being an earth pony (i.e. providing the farming and nature-related talents), not only would this explain the Cake Family's twins (by Mr. and Mrs. Cake coincidentally both having pegasus/unicorn combinations and by sheer chance resulting in a pegasus/pegasus and a unicorn/unicorn), but may also explain why they aren't farmers like the Apple family and (supposedly) other typical earth ponies: lacking the genes for magical connection with nature and farming, they were not as adept to growing crops in their family history and therefore opted for a culinary career instead, since they were better at it.

[[WMG: Ponies can reduce the weight of objects they're carrying.]]
That's why sometimes they are capable of great feats of strength while at other times they don't seem particularly strong.

[[WMG: Ponies with mixed ancestry can sometimes get some magic abilities of a different pony type]]
Pound Cake's surges of super-strength as well as his ability to lift himself in the air at a rather young age may be a result of him having inherited a bit of strength-enhancing earth pony magic from his parents.

[[WMG: Pound and Pumpkin cakes exceptional abilities are not exceptional at all.]]
They are simply a surging of the magic all ponies have. Magic is shown to force things (including developmental processes) to happen unnaturally, so once it stabilizes they'll have to learn to fly and to use magic normally.
Alternatively, it might be something they really CAN do but forget, like how some very young babies can swim but still have to relearn the process when they're older.
* Also alternatively, for pegasi anyway, it might be a body mass issue. Pegasus foals can fly easily because they have so much flying magic for so little weight that zero effort is needed, once they get bigger, they need to actually learn.

[[WMG: Night Ponies are a separate, but related, race to normal Ponies.]]
When Nightmare Moon was banished 1,000 years ago, a contingent of Luna's most loyal guards left Equestria, blaming Celestia of trying to solidify her own power by getting Luna out of the way. As Luna was Princess of the Night, they sought out somewhere where the night did indeed last forever...or at least a significant length of it; the poles.
With several months out of the year being blanketed in darkness, the loyalists were free to revere their chosen princess as much as they pleased. Outside of Celestia's sunlight though, they began to change. Over the millennium of self-imposed exile, these ponies underwent a rapid evolution, likely accelerated by whatever corrupted Luna, gaining cloven hooves and vertically slitted pupils in addition to darker colors. The loyalist unicorns found their horns changing with each generation, and the pegasi had their wings shift with the new evolution. Eventually, the loyalists became the Night Ponies. Breaking the species differences down.
Earth Night Pony: Cloven hooves, slitted pupils, traits common to all Night Ponies.
Unicorn Night Pony "Nighthorns": Males' horns became pairs of heavy, curved bull-like horns, while the females acquired sets of slender oryx-type ones.
Pegasus Night Pony "Nightwings": Leathery bat wings.
When Luna returned from her exile, she sought out the descendants of her guards, and is now helping them reintegrate with larger Equestrian society. Their loyalty to her, even after a thousand-year absence is still fierce, leading to members of her personal guard being recruited from their ranks, explaining the bat-winged pegasi pulling her chariot in Luna Eclipsed.
* If Luna had this contingent of loyalists, why would she have felt so neglected and disregarded?
** Compared to the rest of Equestria, this contingent was very small; likely a squad or two of guards, and maybe their families. The vast majority of ponies still slept at night, and didn't enjoy Luna's work as much as Celestia's. I may be mistaken, but jealousy, as much as resentment, was a part of Luna's transformation/possession as anything. Luna had her guards, but, in her eyes, Celestia had everyone else.
[[WMG: [=Horse is to Pony as Human is to Elf (or Dwarf)=]]]
The ponies are a smaller and more magical version of the mundane creature, with extensive natural magic and connection to nature. They are divided into a nature variant like a wood elf, a more magic focused variant like a high elf, and a variant that flies like some forms of faefolk are known to. The word pony is recycled here to denote a fantasy race of small horses just as dwarf is used to describe both little people in reality and a race of fantasy humanoid in literature and myth.

So, the word equine is used much as a fantasy setting uses "humanoid". Zebras and other equines may practice and use magic, but aren't as inherently connected to it as ponies. They persist in a relatively primitive state technologically since they can't manipulate objects as well as the magical ponies, so ponies also fulfill the dwarf or gnome role of being better at making things (and mining gemstones) than their equine brethren.

As an aside, the series in fact seems to carry some parallels with {{ElfQuest}}, and one can't help but wonder. The earth ponies may be like the Wolfriders, with mundane animal blood in their line that connects them to the earth more fully. The unicorns are like the desert elves, much more in line with magic and how their society used to run. The pegasi are a bit like the gliders, in that they are a bit more militant and they (obviously) fly.

[[WMG: Pegasi have toxic feathers.]]
Considering that a love "poison" was made by stirring different ingredients with a pegasus feather, perhaps it was the feather itself that made it poisonous.

[[WMG: Ponies have Ball-and-socket joints instead of elbows[[hottip:*:Yes, they're called elbows. It's a specific type of joint.]]]]
Think about it; the main joint in the foreleg seems to have the ability to bend any which way. Either it's a free-floating joint held in place only by muscle like the shoulder, or it's a ball-and-socket joint. Having it be a free-floating joint makes no sense for a joint you stand on, leaving the ball-and-socket joint. Their musculature must be really interesting.

[[WMG: Pegasuses flying is related to the pony's aggression or assertiveness]]
As we know from the past, the pegasuses were a ProudWarriorRace styled on the Romans. Now a good deal of their culture is based on competition and many of them are jerks. Rainbow Dash is the best flier in Equestria. Fluttershy often seams to forget she even HAS wings. That is unless she is angry, then she stops walking in favor of flying and even was able to go faster that Rainbow Dash. The flight training is designed to get more aggressive ponies because aggressive ones are better with their wings.

[[WMG: It's only night time nudity that is embarassing to ponies]]
When Fluttershy covers herself in shame in front of Rainbow Dash at the beginning of [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E15TheSuperSpeedyCiderSqueezy6000 The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000]] it may seem a little absurd since ponies are naked all the time anyway. But who says it's the nudity itself that she was ashamed of? The better reason could be that when it gets colder during the night, their mammary glands tend to get stiffer from the temperature and it makes ponies look less modest than during the day. It would also explain why Rarity and Fluttershy put on robes during the night scene in "Read it and weep" considering how they are the two most elegant ponies out of the mane six and wouldn't feel comfortable without them.
* Then why did she cover where they aren't? Did she get to talking with Lyra at the spa?

[[WMG: Foals' instinctive use of their powers is a result of the CentipedesDilemma.]]
Pound and Pumpkin Cake are shown able to use their powers in infancy, whereas Scootaloo and Twilight Sparkle have not learned to fly and needed extensive training respectively. The reason for this is that the infants are able to do so by pure instinct, which is why their powers are described as coming in unpredictable bursts. As they grow older and they develop mentally, they lose that instinctive edge and/or end up ''trying'' to make their powers happen. They can no longer use their powers because they don't know how to do so consciously yet. So they have to re-learn.

[[WMG: All the other statues are in the same situation as Discord.]]

In other words, all the stone statues around Discord were also stone ponies.

[[WMG: Ponies have potentially multiple Cutie Marks]]
Ponies don't have one "special talent". They have multiple talents, but the Cutie Mark simply represents the first one that is firmly expressed. That might explain why ponies might have talents that could not exist in previous eras (bowling, robots). Ponies are not limited to their Cutie Marks nor are their talents always thematically linked, but some might think they do.

[[WMG: Normal-sized Alicorns like Cadance are the result of a do-not-express gene failing to transmit.]]
Normally, interracial foals are merely one of the three types.

[[WMG: Nearly ALL of the ponies, even the likes of Celestia, are [[TooDumbToLive complete]] [[IdiotBall idiots]].]]
Shown multiple times, but very well demonstrated in ''A Canterlot Wedding''. Chrysalis herself, for all her attempts at being a ManipulativeBastard, is not the sharpest tool in the shed - sending Twilight to the caves for her to conveniently discover the real Cadence, leaving the exit guarded only by three completely unarmed pony girls, not even ''trying'' to get in character whatsoever... Yet she manages to ''fool absolutely everybody in Canterlot'', including Princess Celestia, of whom she is the niece! You'd think Celestia would know her own niece well enough to suspect something?

On another note, Canterlot is in danger of being invaded, so why does Luna apparently sleep out of Canterlot? Had she been there, perhaps together with Celestia they could have repelled Chrysalis. Also, since they have the bearers of the Elements at hand, why wouldn't they entrust them with the Elements while they were there? They're fashinable trinkets and had they done this, Chrysalis would have been blasted off far quicker.

* In Celestia's defense, she probably hadn't been spending much time with Cadence. Normally she's a very busy Alicorn, and around the time of the wedding she was on an even stricter schedule because she was trying to keep watch for danger. Also, it's never implied or indicated that Luna sleeps outside of Canterlot.
** Actually, it's exactly in "A Canterlot Wedding" where that is implied for the first time -- Luna flies in from outside Shining Armor's force field to relieve Celestia for the night, and she misses out on the entire changeling invasion.

[[WMG: "Alicorns" and Changeling queens are directly related and possibly even the same thing.]]
It's just that where Chrysalis raised her own swarm and went on a straightforward love vampire locust rampage, Celestia and Luna long ago decided to adopt ponykind as their "children" and put in the hours to ''earn'' the love that sustains and empowers them. Cadence is essentially the same, only younger (possibly too young to even worry about biological offspring yet). That's also why Chrysalis, who otherwise couldn't care less about the lives of mere ponies, didn't kill Cadence outright; enemy or not, she's still "family".

[[WMG: Alicorns get their wings and ethereal god-manes when they hit some magical peak.]]
It only happens to the ponies in the royal family. They're born as unicorns, and when they hit a magical peak they get wings. When they hit a second magical peak, they get the "god-manes". When Cadence is helping Shining Armor defeat the Changeling Queen with her magic, her mane temporarily becomes ethereal. Shining Armor has yet to hit either peak because he's lazy.
* But if the peak is relitive to total power potential, it could just mean he and Twilight are just that powerful
* Considering that Shining Armor can cover an entire city with a selectively permeable force field I'd guess that those "magical peak transformation" rules are only applicable to the royal bloodline. And since Luna still had her wings after being depowered by the Elements and Cadence had wings as a "teenager" I would speculate that it's just the mane.

[[WMG: The "Race" gene is on the X Chromosome]]
Only Mares can be Alicorns, however it is still a rare occurrance because [[AvertedTrope Not]] {{All Genes Are Codominant}} and may require another mutation or specific set of traits to trigger it

[[WMG:Unicorns have a personal PocketDimension where they can store things]]
It's called magicspace. Unicorns can store any object in this personal magicspace as long as there is space. It can then be brought back out if the unicorn needs it. This is how Twilight was able to "conjure" a door in front of Spike and one of the Flim Flams was able to "conjure" a poster of their business logo out of nowhere. It's also how Twilight was able to eliminate all of Rarity's confetti and her red carpet. She didn't make them disappear, she stored it away in her magicspace until she could find the time to dispose of it.

[[WMG: A pony's "special talent" is actually two talents]]
Or, more specifically, a talent and a virtue. A pony has to discover both in order to get their cutie mark, but they only consciously recognize the talent.

* Twilight Sparkle’s talent is magic, and her virtue is her dedication and discipline.

* Pinkie Pie’s talent is throwing parties, and her virtue is her capacity for joy.

* Applejack’s talent is running Sweet Apple Acres, and her virtue is being true to herself.

* Rainbow Dash’s talent is flying, specifically flying with enough skill and speed to produce a sonic rainboom, and her virtue is her love for achieving the best she can.

* Rarity’s talent is designing clothes, and her virtue is her ability to find the beauty in everything and share that beauty with others.

* Fluttershy’s talent is her skill at working with animals, and her virtue is her patience and understanding.

A pony may discover their talent first, and then earn their cutie mark when they discover their virtue (like Rarity, who already wanted to be a fashionista, but had to find the beauty in a rock and share it with others at the school show), or they may discover their virtue and then their talent (like Twilight who was already dedicated, but had to realize her raw power), or they may discover both simultaneously (like Fluttershy who discovered her liking for animals and her ability to communicate with them all at once).

This is why the Cutie Mark Crusaders cannot earn their cutie marks. They already acknowledge their talents, but have not discovered their virtues. For example, Sweetie Belle knows that she is a talented singer, but will not be able to get a singing cutie mark until she realizes either how much singing means to her or how her singing can touch others.
[[/folder]]



[[folder: Equestria]]
[[WMG: Equestria is one of the nation-states of a larger government]]
I question why Celestia is only a "Princess" and my theory is that the Princess' parents are King and Queen of a greater nation (or Equestria IS that greater nation, ponies just call whatever the Princess' rule Equestria just like humans call the USA America even though it's one country on the Super-Continent America). The Royal family is either the last living family to express genetic markers of Alicorn (see my above theory of Alicorns being Progenitors of all Ponies) OR they are the only family to ever HAVE expressed all the Genetic Markers.

This helps with the sort of demi-god / quasi-god status they have, especially if you consider the possibility that the Sun and Moon can "rise" without Celestia and Luna, but they have the magical power to do it and it's simply become a symbolic thing / they have sort of become venerated as Gods and thus need to act as if they are. This Troper subscribe to the theory that Celestia, Luna, Discord, and other "demigods" were the original controllers of the elements of Harmony, and this still works with that. Being a quasi-god is basically no different from being extremely powerful in magic. The Alicorns are really power magic users, Discord was a really powerful magic user among Dragonequus. Celestia and Luna's parents are even more powerful, but delegated the use of the Elements of Harmony to their daughters and others.
[[WMG: The show takes place AfterTheEnd.]]
Considering that there are no humans and the Ponies live in houses and do other human things we can only assume that humanity was wiped out and hyper-intelligent Equines just moved right in. Or possibly, as revenge for years of mistreatment, they took out the humans themselves!
--> "Could it be? In a bizarre twist, a horse is abusing a jockey! Might this be the start of a terrifying [[PlanetOfTheApes planet of the horses]]? In this announcer's opinion, almost certainly yes! And away I go!"
--->-'''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'''
* This makes even more sense when you realize that ponies know what human skull (AB's costume in "The Show Stoppers") and hand (Pinkie's foam hand in "Sonic Rainboom") look like , make references to France and Netherlands, dress up as Statue Of Liberty, use tools clearly designed for human hands (snow shovels in "Winter Wrap Up") and are able to see themselves as saddle animals (Applejack in "Bridle Gossip", Spike in "Dog And Pony Show", Twilight saying "gift horse" - how can horse be a gift in world like Equestria?) [[FridgeHorror The more you think about it...]]
** The gift horse thing isn't that hard. Perhaps Equestria abolished the slave trade only a generation or two ago.
*** It could have been even longer, we still use the term "Cakewalk" despite it's origins in US slavery. Alternatively it could be an example of linguistic shift, meaning "Gift (giving) Horse", sort of how we use the term "Sleep tight" despite it not making sense in modern English except in that context.
** Don't forget Twilight's saddle for "Winter Wrap Up". The real question is, what catastrophe caused the whether to stop changing everywhere but the Everfree Forest?
*** Perhaps it started by using magic to force the seasons to change when they wanted, which destroyed the season's abilities to change on their own with the exception of a few areas around the world?
* Judging by the fact that according to Twilight the same constellations visible from Earth are also visible from Equestria (Orion, Canis Major and Canis Minor are mentioned and she has Rarity sew them into her personalized dress in an episode), wherever they are would have to share a location with Earth.
* This could explain why the train in "Over A Barrel", complete with locomotive, was ''pulled'' by horses. It is a leftover relic of human civilization that Equestrians have utilized as best they can.
* And "Manehattan" is just Manhattan. The buildings were still standing after the humans died off, so the ponies moved in. And in an attempt to erase all signs of humans, the Statue of Liberty was remodeled into a pony.
** [[PlanetOfTheApes GOD DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!]]
* There is actually a [[http://ponibooru.413chan.net/_images/0a5767780a07fcf26218eb4723357ccf/7487%20-%20blood%20celestia%20luna%20Ottanta.jpg picture]] floating around suggesting that. Be careful. It comes from a booru, so NSFW is a given/
*** Here's another picture with Lyra Heartstrings discovering something's [[http://gavalanche.deviantart.com/gallery/?q=lyra#/d3czqct not right.]]
* Dogs exist, and dogs were domesticated by humans; without us, they wouldn't exist. Either humans live somewhere on the planet, or they died out (or moved?).
** Or ponies domesticated dogs themselves, the only one (besides the Diamond Dogs) we've seen was a herding breed.
*** Ponies.. Domesticating dogs.. That induces FridgeLogic and FurryConfusion.
*** Wait a second, Diamond Dogs is a song about an apocalypse. DavidBowie knows the future!
* France is mentioned several times too.
* As for why no one remembers anything about humanity beyond abstract concepts, a ruthless, SecretPolice-styled sect of the Equestrian government works in the shadows to systematically hunt down and destroy every remaining trace of human presence, in the name of preserving the "paradise" that the ponies were able to build once they were freed from the destructive influence of men.
** So, Equestria is secretly harboring a [[NineteenEightyFour 1984-like]] network? That ''needs'' to be addressed in a fanfic.
* What ever cataclysm wiped out the previous inhabitants also rendered the planet uninhabitable and tidally locked. The reason that ponies control the weather and care for the animals is because the ecosystem that once supported them no longer exists. This is why Celestia and Luna are required to keep the planet rotating.
* From the clues we have in-universe, it would appear that whatever planet Equestria is on is geocentric. Luna refused to lower the moon, and is able to make it remain night for extended periods of time, Rarity literally gets too close to the sun and her magic wings turn to ash, it all points to a small sun and moon close to the planet.
** A planet without a solar orbit would also at least partially lack dynamic weather and distinct seasons, which would explain the Winter Wrap-Up and the pegasi having to schedule weather. Areas that have weather that changes 'on its own' could very well be due to the side effects of the ponies locally created weather affecting surrounding areas.
** Perhaps Friendship is magic takes place REALLY FAR into the future, after the sun has burned out, the sun and moon are magical or otherwise artificial, and it is literally the ponies' magic that is keeping the planet alive at all.
*** From the orbit of Pluto, most of the constellations we know would be exactly the same, but a burned-out red giant of a Sun would be just one more star in the background...
* Earth was conquered by a SufficientlyAdvancedAlien who turned all humans into ponies for the lulz. After centuries of his neverending games, the natural laws have been almost entirely replaced by his "magic". Two brave sisters found a way to master this power, summon the Elements of Harmony and turn the tyrant into stone. Our corner of reality has since been slowly recovering from this age of chaos. Please do not fight in front of the statues.
* The whole "How did they build a city if they don't have hands?" question pops up again, and seems like it could be filed away with "unicorn magic"... until you remember the Ponyville was made by Earth Ponies. Then you see Spike doing the chores and work for the others, sure he does it willingly, but it makes you think if it was always like this, then you realise the true horror: THE PONIES ENSLAVE WORLDS! They decend on planets, enslave the dominate species of that planet and force them into slave labor, building cities, tools and other such things until the race is all but dead. Then they force their slaves to construct space crafts to deliver them to their next victim. So why are they appearing on our TV? Well, have a listen to Queen's Seven Seas of Rhye, and Killer Queen, keeping this in mind. What does it sound like? Queen has escape one of the past worlds with one of thier crafts, and have been trying to warn us, without us thinking they're insane and just ignoring them. So now, the ponies must use more resourceful means to subdue us, before they land and take us by force!
** The CMC were able to "repair" Fluttershy's table with nails and hammer, and they also did their stage. The Appleloosians were also Earth Ponies mostly
* Or they all had gone to another planet and let ponies be the dominant species just for the lulz

[[WMG: Equestria was originally an uninhabitable hellhole.]]
Then the ponies, including Celestia, settled an area of it and worked to make it not only livable, but prosperous. Eventually they spread and took the entire area. This ties in with the theory that the series takes place on a future Earth. Humans ruined the planet and died out. Nature took over some areas, but others, like Equestria, remained an uninhabitable wasteland. It is the way it is now because Celestia and Luna got their pony followers to use their magic and abilities to fix everything up. This creates a safe and prosperous haven for ponies, where they're safe from monsters, and their control over the weather and land ensures that they're safe from natural disasters and starvation.
* Expanding on my theory here... The "monsters" and other strange creatures are the descendants of genetic expiriments done by the humans a long time ago, though some species were mutated by radiation. This is why many are sentient and why many resemble mythical monsters. Unicorns, pegasi, dragons, and others were used as status symbol pets by the upper classes. Many creatures were created just to expiriment and see if they could do it, and many of the tougher, scarier species were created for shows, exhibits, fighting, and hunting. (let's face it, a sport hunter would pay a lot to hunt a manticore and have it stuffed for his living room)
* While the reasoning why isn't correct, Equestria used to be a pretty horrific place under the rule of Discord.
** Original poster here. Expanding on my theory, Celestia, Luna, and Discord were also the results of the genetic expiriments done. Humans sought to create the "perfect being", with many results, Celestia and Luna being the most successful. Discord, being made up of so many animals with so many different natures and behavioral traits, caused him to have a screwed up, chaotic nature. He destroyed the facility and killed the humans as revenge, then proceeded to make the world chaotic, because it was the only way he could feel normal. (however, the world was already an uninhabitable hellhole thanks to humans screwing it up) When Celestia and Luna stood up to him, they didn't kill him because they knew it wasn't his fault he was so messed up. They still hope that, one day, they can find a spell that can help him.

[[WMG: France, zoos, and Dutch apple pie don't actually exist.]]
Applejack just invented them in her delirium.
* Seems to be {{jossed}}, at least as far as France goes, since Fluttershy mentions French haute couture when speaking to Rarity in a later episode, and is not delirious. Nervous due to Rarity pressing her for an opinion, but not delirious.
** And Applebloom speaking French in "Cutie Pox".
* Hoity Toity also mentioned that he was craving Dutch apple pie after seeing Applejack's outfit in "Suited for Success"
* Photo Finish is clearly German, even using a few German words. And in that same episode we see a pony with asian slanted eyes...
* Of course France exists: that's where Mareseilles and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Havre Le Hoovre]] are located. And the Netherlands exists too: that's where Trotterdam is.

[[WMG: The Everfree Forest causes the ponies to have an existential crisis.]]
So the ponies are obviously afraid of the monsters in the forest, but they've also expressed fear at the very idea that the forest can operate autonomously. Now, imagine that you're job is, say, controlling the weather. You spend years and years learning, training, and improving your craft. You get to be pretty good at it, maybe the best like Dash claims to be. And then, you find out that there is a place that does it without your help. Suddenly, your life is cast into doubt. If the Everfree forest doesn't need the ponies' help, who's to say the rest of Equestria does? [[TotalRecall Perhaps your job is nothing but a lie, meant to keep you busy.]] Maybe you've wasted your life learning a handy but ultimately unnecessary skill. What if the world ''just doesn't need you?'' The forest would probably freak you out too.
* Seeing how a major city (Cloudsdale) is built around the fact ponies can control said clouds this would also cause an economic crisis.
* Um... "Control the weather?" Believe me, that is the ''last'' thing anypony would let go of. Sunshine and rain ''on demand''? Perfect weather for growing apples at any time? Never overly long winters (assuming they got it done in time) that would decrease crop yields? Existentialist crisis maybe, but definitely not out of a job.
** It's not being out of a job that scares them, but the idea that they're job is largely unnecessary in the grand scheme of things. Incredibly helpful the job may be, but it'll still get on without them, if in a more chaotic way.
* On the other hand, other sentient races might see them as an entire race of [[HumanoidAbomination equinoid abominations]] that forces nature itself into a neat and tidy schedule and shun them all as physical affronts to everything holy and natural.

[[WMG: The show is foreshadowing the end of OUR Earth and what it'll look like in the future.]]
In 2012 human kind will destroy themselves in a massive war for world domination and the only thing left behind will be their technology. All the atomic bombs and toxic substances over the years will cause animals to mutate and evolve; with ponies becoming the dominate species of Earth with new mutant species popping up looking like mythical beings. Ex: The hydra is really a super-mutated lizard-like creature.

[[WMG: The reason for the SchizoTech is because Equestria is way behind the tech level of other nations]]
And is trying to catch up by importing some of the more advanced stuff.

[[WMG: Equestria is actually an abandoned amusement/theme park.]]
Specifically, an amusement park world, created countless ages ago by human or human-like (let's not necessarily preclude elves or fairies) magical beings as a place for them and their children to vacation.... and the ponies--- Earth, Pegasus, Unicorn and Alicorn(winged unicorn)--- were created as the entertainment and maintenance staff (along with perhaps the other intelligent creatures such as the cows, mules, buffalo, etc). Untold ages later, the original builders of the amusement park abandoned it and left the live-in staff to their own devices.
If you think about it, it all makes tremendous sense. Where else would everything-- the plants, the animals, the climate, the seasons-- be so micromanaged? Where else would you see such surprisingly tame "wild" animals? (Even the "monsters" are a relatively minimal threat.) If the ponies were the genetically established head caretakers, it only makes sense that the other species would have an obedience instinct implanted in them (diluted over the millenia, but still effective enough for Fluttershy to cow a Cockatrice, a Manticore and a dragon.) It also explains the SchizoTech (crank Victrolas next to modern turntables, candles and lanterns next to electric lights, medieval armor, wild west outfits, victorian wigs, fashions from the 80's, etc) as the sort of thing one would need on the "backlot" of an amusement park, where themed performances of every possible culture and era would be likely. Why else would the ponies be using musical instruments with keys for HUMAN fingers, cups with handles, tools with hand grips, etc-- save as a racial memory of doing things for the convenience of human guests? It would explain why the ponies were PULLING the train engine rather than RIDING it; they have an instinctual memory that trains should be pulled, and should have an engine up front... but the recollection of how it all works is screwy after so much time. It even explains why gemstones are scattered so prolifically around Equestria that Spike can casually snack on them, and Rarity thinks nothing of digging up four WAGONLOADS of gemstones, out of loose topsoil, just to decorate a dress.... part of the fanciful setting, the ground is "salted" with heaps of prefabricated gems for any children who wanted to play at "treasure hunting."(or perhaps are coaxed into growing, like crystals...)
* Celestia and Luna are AI constructs or uploaded humans who have the access codes necessary to command and reprogram the sufficiently advanced technology of the park, their original jobs being dealing with any situations the ponies couldn't handle themselves. Their falling out a millennium ago was really over what to do now that the park had been abandoned.
** That theory goes better under the "matrix" WMG further up this page.
* This would explain even more about Ponyville in Generation 3. Perhaps the G3 cartoons portrayed Ponyville the amusement park in its early stages of abandonment, and the reason all the ponies kept throwing parties, putting on shows, redecorating the place, and serving desserts with such frequency back then was that they still expected guests from the outside world to show up and wanted to stay in practice. Like Disneyland, they had a castle that was mainly just for show, and there were even a rollercoaster and Ferris wheel, free to ride, right in the middle of town!

[[WMG: Equestria was originally founded by [[{{Precursors}} ''horses'']].]]
The ponies were created as a stunted ServantRace but something wiped out their horse masters. Princess Celestia and Luna were the [[LastOfHisKind sole survivors]].

[[WMG: The Everfree Forest is the boundary between our world and theirs.]]
The Everfree Forest works just as our world works. The animals govern themselves and the water cycle actually cycles on it's own. We share common mythical creatures like cockatrices. Zecora is either a descendant of a wandering zebra, or a traveler between realms. Her African masks are relics from the human world.

[[WMG: The pony world is fantasy of a little girl.]]
Think of how the clouds don't move on their own and how the animals can't fend for themselves. This is all because the little girl who dreamed up this world doesn't actually know how the water cycle, ecosystem, or seasons work. The Everfree forest contains everything that doesn't fit in with the pony fantasy, AKA reality. Everything bad, strange or unknown gets put there, along with the girl's subconscious doubts about the pony world.
* If the girl is LaurenFaust from when she was younger, then I'll agree with this 100 percent!

[[WMG: In Equestria, a lunar or solar eclipse would be a mind-blowing cosmic horror.]]
In the real world, the moon can be out at any time of day. Sometimes it only appears with the sun and isn't visible at all at night. But Nightmare Moon's backstory implies that in Equestria, the moon and the sun are mutually exclusive. Why? Because Luna and Celestia arranged a fixed cycle of moon and sun in order to more effectively manage the tides. Maybe they even worked out the interactions of gravitational pulls to reduce natural disasters like earthquakes or tsunamis. Maintaining the sun and moon's relative position is of the utmost importance.

Alternately, the Equestrian solar system is not heliocentric, but has spheres like Ptolemy theorized. But rather than the sun and moon being embedded in one sphere, they are both set onto a fixed path in the same sphere and circle around it like race cars on a track.

Either way, the idea of the two celestial bodies intersecting would never even occur to a resident of Equestria. If it were suggested, much less actually happen, it would blow their little pony minds.

** Alternatively, eclipses were regularly scheduled, but none happened in the last thousand years... Because they were meant as times for Celestia and Luna to get together and talk.

[[WMG: Four Stars are ponies who served Nightmare Moon for thousand years or they got awaken before series pilot. After Nigtmare Moon gone they got transformed or turned back back to more normal ponies.]]
Now they wander aroud Equestria, confused and trying to make something from rest of their powers or fit in. They are not evil, but still little jerkass, they strong powers (depending what pony species). And they have Cutie Mark related to stars, moon, night, sparking or magic.
* The Great and Powerful Trixie?
** Of course!
* Twilight's parents?
** Impossible. Twilight's parents are shown alive, well, and not locked in the sky in 'The Cutie Mark Chronicles', which takes place years prior to episode 1.

[[WMG: Related to above. Four Stars are now normal ponies, nothing indicating their hidden power and role as NM servants.]]
They propably have normal life before NM return and after her defeat. They don't know anything about their hidden personas. They may turn into Four Stars if other evil force show up. And anypony minor or background can be one of them.
* ParanoiaFuel?

[[WMG: Also related to the above. The four stars are Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death.]]
The four horses of the Apocalypse. They are working in secret to rally all those who are faithful to Nightmare Moon, and one day raise her again.
* [[http://www.aorange.com/?p=1137 You]] [[http://www.aorange.com/?p=1145 mean]] [[http://www.aorange.com/?p=1147 like]] [[http://www.aorange.com/?p=1158 these]] [[http://www.aorange.com/?p=1163 fillies?]]
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIY41LrvMFQ My Little Pony, Apocalypse Pony, Punish mankind for their sins!]]

[[WMG: Related to the above as well; the four stars are actually TeamFourStar.]]

[[WMG: The entire setting is the future of PeaceOnEarth.]]
In keeping with the "Equestria is Earth AfterTheEnd" theory, either a cataclysmic conventional war or a nuclear holocaust (based on whether you're counting the 1939 or 1955 versions as canon), humanity was wiped off the face of the Earth, leaving the animals to emerge from their hidey-holes and take up residence in the former human dwellings and form a new society from its remnants ("Ye shall rebuild the old wastes", says the Bible-reading owl). Fast forward through a few millennia of animal-rule and [[TheMagicComesBack the magic coming back]], and boom, you have My Little Pony. Equestria merely happens to be a settlement where horses are the dominant animals.

[[WMG: The reason the Everfree Forest is weird...]]
Is that it's still suffering from the battle between Celestia and Nightmare Moon. Think about it:
* The ruins in the middle were mentioned in episode 2 as being "The Princesses' old home". Playing on the WMG's that the ruins used to be the old seat of power 1000 years ago, it would make sense if Celestia and Nightmare confronted one-another there.
* That's where the objects representing the old Elements of Harmony were, at the site of the old battle.
* Taking the above into consideration, it's not impossible to imagine that when Nightmare Moon was sealed away, a massive blast of magical energy threw the surrounding area into a state where weather changed and seasons came and went without ponies. When the mane six used the Elements to defeat Nightmare Moon, they probably sent out another wave of magic, possibly extending the problem of the Everfree Forest.

[[WMG: Hoofington doesn't exist.]]
[[spoiler:If Trixie had claimed to have saved a real town from an Ursa Major, eventually she would have run into somepony from that town who would know that her story is a lie. So she make up Hoofington to prevent this.]]
* Alternatively, it's one of those town names that you see pretty much everywhere you go. Like say, Springfield in the United States. That way Trixie doesn't have to specify which Hoofington she's talking about.

[[WMG: The thing behind the creation of Nightmare Moon was also responsible for the destruction of whatever came before Equestria.]]
In keeping with the [[After the End]] theory, before Equestria another species, be it human or something else, controlled the planet. Eventually some evil force, potentially another species, came and destroyed "Equestria". At this point, the pony species were already evolving or were spontaneously mutating due to the weapons used by this evil force. Recognizing these new species, the current holders of "Equestria" created the Elements of Harmony to give the ponies one hope should the evil return. A considerable time later, the planet has regrown under the guidance of Celestia and Luna. Evil force returns, gets fucked when it finds everything happiness and rainbows. Somehow corrupts Luna into Nightmare Moon, but this plan of course fails. The stars that aided in Nightmare Moon's escape? This evil force.

[[WMG: The Equestrian world is flat.]]
It would be impossible for eternal night to exist on a round planet, as it would be day on the other side of the planet. So the sun went down on the uninhabited underside of the world and stayed until the ponies defeated Nightmare Moon.
* [[{{Discworld}} Does it also rest on the back of four elephants which themselves stand on the back of a giant space turtle? ]]
** Yes, probably. There's another theory on here that says that the speed of light has been slowed down to about the speed of sound due to the dense magical field surrounding Equestria, which explains the flash and colors in a Sonic Rainboom (Rainbow Dash managed to break both the sound barrier and the light barrier), so if this theory is probably true, why not that one?

* The existence of a globe ("Secret of My Excess") and UnreliableNarrator Chancellor Puddinghead's comment on the world being round seem to put this idea to bed.
** Having magical princesses in charge of raising and lowering the sun and moon (and the demonstrable effect it has on day and night when something happens to them suggests rather strongly that that actually is what they do) really only makes ''sense'' in the context of a flat world, though. On the other hand, the setting seems to have comets as modern astronomy understands them, too. Is there a trope for settings that can't make up their minds about which cosmology they're operating under?

[[WMG: Equestria is a micro planet.]]
Somewhere out in space, there is a tiny meteorite capable of sustaining life... but only if it's citizens were less than an inch tall. Because of it's tiny size, the residents have to maintain the ecosystem very carefully or every time there's a sunspot, the equestrian civilization would be wiped out. Princess Celestia's job is actually extremely difficult, making sure the tiny planet gets the proper amount of sunlight without burning up.

[[WMG: Equestria is just one of 12 to 15 "nations" on the planet. Each ruled by a species based on the EasternZodiac.]]
So far, we've seen at least four civilized species that can represent an animal from the EasternZodiac:
* Ponies represent the Horse obviously. There are also Mules and Zebras.
* Spike is a Dragon, plus others exist as well.
* The Diamond Dogs represent the Dog (Somewhat... They aren't the most noble example.)
* The Ox can be represented by the resident cows and the Buffalo Tribe.
* We haven't seen much of the Rooster nation, but it can be inferred that's where Scootaloo is from.

Of course, this is just an extremely tiny example of what kind of "people" exist on the planet, and wouldn't really represent the entire population as a whole. They may also have their own brands of magic (distinct for each nation/species) that they use to keep the laws of physics and the planet as a whole running. The only odd duck character is Gilda the Griffon.
* The cows we have seen live in barns and are clearly under the rule of and dependent upon the ponies. If they were ever a separate nation, they appear to have lost their independence and their liberty at some point in the past.
** Or their families immigrated into Equestria at some point in the past.

To an extent proven true via "Hearth's Warming Eve". Equestria is a region of land, not the entire planet. What lies outside of Equestria's borders, we don't know yet.

[[WMG: Everfree Forest LITERALLY runs itself.]]
It's an EldritchLocation and EldritchAbomination in one. Like the single tree that grew into a swamp in ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'', this one's an evil lifeform that was mutated by the same force that created Nightmare Moon. It's far-reaching eyes and ears only travel as far as the forest itself, but with a little tweaking and some zebra charms one ''could'' feasibly live within it while averting all notice, like Zecora does.

[[WMG: It's Celestia's magic that keeps nature in Equestria dependant on ponies.]]
She does this to ensure that no cataclysms or predators disturb ponies' idyllic lives. But since she doesn't have the power to run everything by herself, she needs to employ regular ponies.

Everfree Forest covers the land on which Celestia doesn't suppress the nature. An example would be the castle ruins from the second episode, which clearly used to be a part of Equestria, but was abandoned by Celestia, probably because of ill memories connected with that place.

[[WMG:It's AllJustADream...]]
...Of a poor RealLife mare mistreated by her owner, made to live in squalor, perennially sick and dirty...

...Her only escape being her dreams of Equestria, a place where horses run free with no oppressive humans in sight, and she herself is a beautiful princess.

* This is probably one of the most depressing [=WMGs=] ever.
* This seems unlikely. If we were to assume that it were true, we would conclude that the mare in question must be American, since the characters in the show all speak English with American accents. But in a modern, technologically advanced society like that of the modern United States, there really are no workhorses anymore: horses today are either racehorses or essentially very expensive pets. Either way, mistreating or overworking one would be extremely uneconomical. It would be like using a Ferrari to haul bulk freight. And besides, if this were the case, how did this mare's dreams end up on television?
** Uneconomical, yes. Would a stupid neglectful owner care? No. There are animals still being abused all over the planet. Also, in this WMG, MLP is a dream, not a tv show.

[[WMG: Every previous MLP story has just been the story-book version.]]
From what I can tell, the villains of MLP have always been kind of... dark. Such as Tirac, the Demon God, or the Smooze, this freaky goopy stuff that consumes the land. Something tells me that they weren't actually defeated with.. love or.. sharing. I THINK what really happened was a whole lot more sadistic. I'm picturing a [[IncrediblyLamePun Ponycaust]] or two.
* Alternatively, it was the Elements of Harmony, and generations of wielders (who may or may not have decreased in number as time went on) that ended these dark villains.

[[WMG: Equestria entered a technological dark age after the imprisonment of Nightmare Moon.]]
Equestria was once MUCH more advanced, but the war between Nightmare Moon and Celestia a thousand years ago ruined the infrastructure of society, the SchizoTech we see all the time having been scavenged and refurbished from the ruins.

[[WMG: Cloudsdale first existed as a Weather Factory, not a town.]]
Up in the clouds is obviously the best place for a weather factory, but without Earth Ponies or soil, no food could be grown there. Originally, Pegasi only went there to keep the factories running. Later, when pony civilization became more advanced, they could import food and other necessities from terrestrial towns, and workers and their families built houses there, from which a city eventually developed.

[[WMG:The collective PaintingTheFrostOnWindows society that the ponies have in Equestria came about after the Princesses defeated Discord.]]
There are two ways this could work, either the Princesses decided to make everything as un-discord-like as possible meaning nature itself would be made to run on a schedule. The second is that before and after Discord's defeat the underlying reality of the kingdom had been stretched, damaged and chaotic that the ponies needed to "do things by hoof" so plants would grow, the sun and moon would move across the sky and the weather would be actual weather. It can be a combination of both points as well.

The end result is the present day where guiding nature is the {{status quo}} and the Everfree Forest where nature can run itself is deemed creepy and just ''[[EldritchLocation wrong.]]''
* It does make sense. We've seen a small taste of Discord's idea of "fun". Yes, candy weather is funny and tasty, but it'd also reek havok on the environment. We know Discord threw ''everything'' into chaos over 1000 years ago and doesn't give a darn about any kind of order, natural or otherwise. Probably before he appeared, nature worked fine, but after he showed up and threw everything into chaos, ''nothing'' made sense anymore. He destroyed natural order because it was order and he wanted chaos. And after his defeat, there was no way for the princesses to fix a great deal of what he'd done, so the only choice was for everyone to begin doing things themselves to have any semblence of natural order. It honestly sounds like something the ChaoticEvil Discord would come up with to do, doesn't it?
* Unless the history has gotten convoluted in the intervening years, "Hearth's Warming Eve" pageant explains that unicorns ran the day/night cycle, pegasi the weather, and earth ponies the crops and food, all before Celestia's rule.
** Unless all of these are not true. The idea of these things occurring naturally has been shown to horrify ponies. History might have been rewritten because the alternative is unthinkable. To openly acknowledge that so much has been lost despite the victory over Discord -- to the extent that ponies must now toil endlessly to keep their world habitable when before it supported them naturally -- would break their collective heart and mind.
* on the other Hoof, it showed that the land that would become Equestria got by just fine without earth ponies and pegasi.

[[WMG: The Everfree Forest first came into existence when Nightmare Moon was sealed, and it has been spreading gradually since then.]]
When Celestia said that she and Luna were meant to rule together, she was ''serious'' -- she just couldn't fully maintain all of the spells governing Equestria's harmonious existence on her own, and the Everfree Forest was a sign of its gradual decay. Had the Mane Cast not redeemed Princess Luna, the Everfree Forest would have eventually overtaken all of Equestria.

[[WMG: The Everfree Forest is a remnant of Discord's reign...]]
...And it is allowed to continue to exist as a reminder of the dark days that came before.

[[WMG: The Everfree Forest resists all forms of outside influence.]]
Not only in the sense that it's free from pegasus weather manipulation or animal tending, but also Discord's manipulations as well. This is why the Elements of Harmony (and indeed an ''entire castle'' were found in a place nopony ever goes: After Discord was imprisoned, the Everfree Forest was the only place in Equestria that wasn't left in a state of complete and utter disrepair.

[[WMG:The Everfree Forest was a hiding place for ponies from Discord.]]
Based on the above WMG, we have this. In fact, that's how the forest got its name: it was "free" from Discord.

[[WMG: The IDyeGrass nature of the setting was due to the fixing of the land after Discord got through with it.]]
Discord's influence completely botched the natural order of things, so the Princesses gave their subjects the ability to affect the weather to help repair it. Unfortunately, the natural order became dependent on the ponies, and after thousands of years it became the new norm and the ponies came to believe anything else as unnatural. The Everfree Forest was spared from Discord's influence (possibly because it was the original stronghold of the princesses), but because the land didn't need caring for, they left it alone to oversee the reconstruction, and by the time they could return to it, a new equilibrium had been established.
* That may be why Zecora lives in the Everfree forest. Her homeland doesn't work like that, and the controlling of weather creeps her out.

[[WMG: The ponies no longer need to manage nature]]
Regardless of why they started in the first place, nature in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' setting can handle things like weather, animals, and the turning of the seasons on it's own. It's just that managing the seasons by hoof is so much more convenient that the ponies have gotten into the habit of doing it themselves.

[[WMG: The series is set within our world, just another aspect of it.]]
Specifically, Equestria is within one of the many strange worlds to be found in the Sidhe, possibly with a smattering of AllMythsAreTrue and was cofounded by Epona, Slepnir, Pegasus, and possibly the early unicorns. This would mean that Ponies are all actually very benign Fair Folk, and Discord and whatever turned Luna into Nightmare Moon were invaders from the Unseelie Court.

[[WMG: Somepony will make a reference to Salt Lick City.]]
Think about it.
* Or Baltimare. Or Stalliongrad. Or Chicacolt, Illipony. Or Marewaukee, Wiscoltsin. You get the idea. The possibilities are endless
* Baltimare is located in Mareyland, or maybe they'll leave Equestria and go to Maneila in the Fillypines
** Or, we'll find out more about locations already mentioned (Manehattan, Hoofington, Fillydelphia) I get the feeling Fillydelphia has an unusual Americana flair to it.
*** How about Saint Colt, Maneisota?
*** Or they may leave it as St. Cloud, and it's a pegasus cultural hub.
* Salt Lick City for maximum humor, given saltlicks as an alcohol stand-in and the Mormon tenet of chemical abstinance.
** Mormons? Don't you mean [[JustForPun Maremons]]?
*** I hope you don't mean that [[DigimonAdventure scary burning humanoid thing.]]
* Palomino Alto is probably a major high-tech center.
* What about New Stables (New York) or Ponyko (Tokyo)?
* Gallop and Santa Hay, in the state of New Mexicolt (or is that Neigh Mexico?); Whinnypeg; Hocksford and Manechester; San Franciscolt, or possibly San Flanksisco; Tallahorsee; Pranceylvania.
* Vancolter, Bronco Coltlumbia is where they make a highly popular among all ages cartoon based on a toy line for girls.

[[WMG: Discord was the one who created Equestria.]]
Really, "magic talking equines who have a society based on friendship" is a pretty strange concept. Discord created a servitor race to be an audience to his madness, as well as a planet for them to stand on. He messed with this race constantly by changing their form and mashing them up with other creatures (thus all the hybrid races). Ponies were just the form they happened to be in at the moment that someone managed to use another magic source to put an end to his "creative" spree.

[[WMG: Equestria is the afterlife.]]
Equestria was created by Celestia and Luna, and maybe Discord. However, they needed inhabitants, so they decided to reincarnate souls from our world into theirs as ponies and other species. It would explain any references to our world, those being residual memories of a previous life. And, of course, being a different universe, physics work differently there.
Of course, not everybody gets reincarnated to Equestria. It's mostly random. Mostly, because everywhere needs heroes, and Celestia deliberately reincarnates those of particular virtue so there would aways be those who could control the Elements of Harmony.

[[WMG: The whole REAL story behind Equestria]]
Equestria is a country, the planet it is on is very similar to [[Main/{{Neopets}} Neopia]], but the only sentient species are ponies of three(possibly four) races, dragons of several races, zebras, sea serpents, buffalo, Diamond Dogs, and griffons. The sea serpents, as well as sea ponies if they exist live in an underwater country very similar to Maraqua, zebras come from an island country similar to Mystery Island or a desert country on the other side of the Everfree Forest similar to The Lost Desert, griffons come from a country similar to Altador, Diamond Dogs come from an island similar to Krawk Island. Equestria is similar to Meridell mixed with Neopia Central, and buffalo are native to the far side of Equestria, and The Everfree Forest is similar to The Haunted Woods.

Two thousands years or so ago there was a land similar to Faerieland, Cloudsdale was once part of it, but was separated. The Faerieland like country was home to the Alicorns and Draconequi who lived in peace with each other. At this time no country had a ruler, and this cloud country was under famine. Discord created an inmortality potion, he, five other Draconequi, and six Alicorns, including sisters Celestia and Luna took it. They all left their homeland and the rest of the Draconequi and Alicorns soon died out, which caused the cloud land to disappear except for a town sized piece which floated over to Equestria and became Cloudsdale. Each country got two leaders, one Alicorn to control harmony, and one Draconequus to control chaos. Equestria got Discord and Celestia.

Luna was selected to be the Alicorn ruler of The Everfree forest. However the Draconequus who was chosen to rule with her had somehow been immune to the affects of the immortality potion and died from an illness. So she came back to her sister and they both tried to rule Equestria along with Discord. Before this, the cloud country was the only one inhabited by sentient beings, so the two rulers of each land created a species, buffalo had originally been created by Luna and her mortal Draconequus friend to inhabit The Everfree Forest, but when she came to help rule Equestria she brought the buffalo with her and they began to live on the far side of Equestria. Celestia and Discord had created the ponies, which came in three races, earth, unicorn and pegasi.

Because there were three rulers watching over two species, the sisters decided to take care of the buffalo and trusted Discord to take care of all three races of ponies(there was only one buffalo race, but there were about as many buffalo as there were all three pony races combined.) Over time Discord got bored and began to torture the ponies, and treat them like puppets. The sisters hated this so they created the Elements of Harmony which turned him into a statue. Because there was no Draconequus helping rule Equestria there was no chaos. This meant nature couldn't take care of itself in Equestia, so the sisters had to make the sun and moon appear here, and the ponies had to help change seasons, take care of non sentiment animals, grow all plants, and pegasi had to change weather on schedule.

It was right after Discord was gone that the sisters created cutie marks for ponies, when a pony was around tween age, and found something they were very good at, they received a cutie mark that represents it, and makes it what they must do for the rest of their life. This helped keep the ponies in harmony. Soon after Discord was statufied, Luna was naturally altered with the powers of a Draconequus, and was going to slowly turn into one, but Celestia banished her.

When Discord was temporarily free his powers had build up too long so it caused everything to go much crazier then it used too, and if he had been out long enough and learned to rule with Celestia again it would have smoothed out.

* That's. One of the. Most. Epic. [=WMGs=]. I've. Ever. Read.

[[WMG: The play in [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E13HearthsWarmingEve Hearth's Warming Eve]] is not historically accurate.]]
Pretty much ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. However, rather than it being FutureImperfect at work, it's due to different influences from [[ValuesDissonance a changing culture]] to [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality the fact that the ponies have to work with a physical stage and a living audience with the typical attention span]].

Some of the changes are as follows:
* Commander Hurricane was male.
* Princess Platinum, while by know means a generous soul, [[{{Flanderization}} was not as obnoxsous as portrayed]]. Rather, she had [[DeadlyDecadentCourt a court of nobleponies who forced her to demand outrageous concessions or face civil war]].
* Chancellor Puddinghead, in contrast, had the opposite problem (is there a trope for Reverse Flanderization?): In reality, she was even [[UpToEleven more of a]] [[TheCaligula Caligula]] than advertized. However, she was toned down for the play due to RealityIsUnrealistic and PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad.
* Private Pansy may have in fact been Hurricane's daughter. Like with Fluttershy being more an Earth Pony than a Pegasus, Pansy was more Unicorn, with interests running more accademic. Naturally, had she more spine (or at least regular access to books), she could have been a BadassBookworm. She may have in fact had a secret relationship with a stallion of the other tribes.
* The time frame from the search for a new land to the end is extremly compressed for time:
** The three tribes sent out larger expeditions than the two ponies a piece (no fewer than 20, no larger than 100), and the leaders were not present. Hurricane may have been the most likely to go, but at the same time it is just as likely that he was needed to keep the peace.
** After Pegasopolis, Unicornia and [[BreadEggsMilkSquick Dirtville/Earth/Terra/whatever]] were properly founded, ''then'' the leaders, and their governments, moved to the settlements. Only then do they start to notice the others there as well. This was due to each having small numbers, being widely spaced, and more interested in internal affairs for years rather than in what was going on outside of the settlements. With the governments relocated and booming populations, the three settlements could afford to send out scouts further afield. This period probably lasted a good ten years or so.
** There was a full blown war. Either as a MeleeATrois, or between two tribes (If the speculation on Pansy is true, Daddy Commander Hurricane found out?) with the other joining into the fray soon after.
** The leaders and their aids get stuck in the cave and the events happen more or less as portrayed. However, outside their forces learn the lesson of Friendship earlier. Due to the cold, ponies start freezing to death. Realizing that they have all lost their leaders in the confusion, and that if they all freeze to death they won't be able to kill each other, a truce is called, and all the ponies become friends, singing songs, dancing, playing games and shareing what little food they have, much like the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_truce 1914 Christmas Day Truce]]. This was left out due to time.

[[WMG: The Flag shown at the end of the [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E13HearthsWarmingEve play]] is not an anachronism]]
At the end of the play, a flag is raised showing what looks to be the modern Equestria flag, which plainly displays Celestia and Luna as Alicorns. While this may seem out of place if the events take place before their births, it would make since if the idea of an Alicorn, all three breeds in one pony existed before them as a Heraldric symbol (see the entry in the Equestrian Culture Folder). So, the flag for Equeatria is more or less the same flag as designed by the founding ponies. To put this in perspective, think of it being if the Founding Fathers kept the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gadsden_flag Gadsen Flag]] as the United State's national flag.

[[WMG: The historical events depicted in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E13HearthsWarmingEve Hearth's Warming Eve]]" occurred ''after'' Celestia and Luna overthrew Discord.]]
After they overthrew Discord, Celestia and Luna saw no reason to assume political control of pony society. Why would they have? They probably thought that everything would be fine now that Discord was gone. After the founding of Equestria, however, the conflicts between the three races of ponies flared up again, and so Celestia and Luna took over because, as Alicorns, they represented all three races. We know that Celestia and Luna were around at that time, because Clover the Clever mentioned that her mentor had been Starswirl the Bearded, whom Luna mentioned, in "Nightmare Night," having met personally. Since it is likely that Starswirl was either already dead by the time of the events depicted in "Hearth's Warming," or at least rather old (after all, Clover was already a chief counselor to Princess Platinum, suggesting that she was already a mature adult by that point), it follows that Celestia and Luna must already have been around. In fact, it's even possible that the ending depicted in 'Hearth's Warming" is inaccurate, and that the conflict actually ended with Celestia and Luna taking political control of all three groups, but that they've given out that the ponies managed to settle their differences themselves for propaganda purposes.

[[WMG: The old pony kingdom depicted in "Hearth's Warming Eve" was fresh from a quiet revolution.]]
The pegasi, unicorns, and Earth ponies hadn't always lived in an air of FantasticRacism and bedrugding interdependence, or even for very long. In fact, at one time, the old kingdom had been whole and very peaceful. However, a 3-way schism occurred:
* The military powers slowly became dominated by the pegasi, with weather-control possibly acting as civil service. They either tried to stage a coup and seceded after failing, or simply seceded. Their general now led them, as he/she always had.
* The Earth ponies had their wealth squandered by the unicorns (and maybe even by the pegasi), and were reduced to second-class citizens. They listened less and less to the nobility, and took care of their own affairs more and more, until the Earth ponies were more or less autonomous. Their chancellor was now elected from their own masses, rather than chosen by the nobility.
* Speaking of nobility, it was gradually filled up by the unicorns, due to their strange powers and their hold on the sun and moon. However, both the pegasi and Earth ponies turned away, and instead of healing ties or improving matters, they simply stuck their noses up and ignored them.
It's quite possible the main characters of the play, or their immediate ancestors, brought all of this to pass.
* That'd make for an interesting fic...
* Given the cautionary tale behind [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E17HeartsAndHoovesDay Hearts and Hooves Day]], perhaps the Love Poison was the cause of the decline of the old pony kingdom. The Earth Ponies became mistrusting of the pegasi, since it was most likely one of their number who stumbled upon the Love Poison recipe that required all sorts of things only a pegasus would have easy access to, the Pegasi declared martial law to prevent their own society from crumbling, and Princess Platinum was thrust into power at a younger than expected age as she was the only other heir to the Unicorn throne.

[[WMG: The alicorns on the flag in "Hearth's Warming Eve" are not Celestia and Luna.]]
If one looks closely, the image of Celestia has bright green hair, rather than the pink hair we know she once had. Those could be Celestia and Luna's predecessors, or even their parents. In either case, it's likely the Princesses weren't the first alicorns to control the sun.
* Possibly confirmed in that very episode. When Spike was narrating the play, he said it took place "long before the rule of Princess Celestia and Luna".

[[WMG: Though united, the uneasy tension between the three races after the founding of Hearth's Warming Eve is what sets the stage for Discord to be created/arrive and take over Equestia.]]
While there's certainly friendship between the three races following the thawing, years of disdain between themselves is not going to evaporate overnight. One can imagine that there will be heated discussions for how to wrap-up winter properly, etc, as they learn to work together and not in the former tithing situation prior. And then consider how little it took for Discord to escape from the statue: the little spat between one filly of each species. Imagine that at a much much larger scale. Whether Discord existed before and could only take power upon such conflict, or that the strength of the conflict created Discord, it's hard to tell, but certainly he would easily conquer the land in such a case.
* I kinda like the idea that Discord was the result of ''ALL'' the races bickering, including non-ponies. That's why he's a mishmash of so many different creatures. But he enjoys tormenting ponies particularly, possibly due to the StalkerWithACrush fanon toward Celestia (You won't love me? Say goodbye to your precious ponies!)

[[WMG: Building off the "Hearth's Warming play isn't historically accurate" WMG above:]]
The play in was [[HollywoodHistory a sugarcoated version of the actual history,]] but everypony knows the real story.
It was a ''holiday pageant'', after all; it only makes sense that it would be a big case of RousseauWasRight. In reality, the founding of Equestria was likely ''far'' more contentious. Some possibilities:

* Commander Hurricane didn't just take Private Pansy (who was probably created just for the play, for comic relief), but ''a full platoon of pegasus warriors.'' In the play, Hurricane/Rainbow Dash mentions that they will conquer a new home if necessary.
* Also, the Unicorn tribe didn't actually raise the sun and the moon, that was just added in to make them look good.

[[WMG: The Hearth's Warming Eve play is the bowdlerized, all-ages version]]
Let's just say that she's not called chancellor ''pudding''head in the oral version.

[[WMG: The Everfree Forest is where ponies lived before Equestria was founded]]
As shown in "Hearth's Warming Eve", the ponies emigrated from their original lands to a new home, which became Equestria. The original lands, frozen by Windigos, eventually thawed out on their own and had to fend for itself as the ponies that once tended it had all moved on. That's why there is an abandoned royal castle there, it was the one last inhabited by Princess Platinum and her court.
* The significant weakness to this theory is the Everfree Forest's proximity to Ponyville, which is within sight of Canterlot. Either the ponies never moved ''that'' far away, Discord's reign of chaos changed things around, or they did found Equestria far away and by the present day its borders had expanded to such a degree that it came back around to the ponies original homeland with nobody even noticing except possibly the Princesses (assuming Celestia and/or Luna put the Elements were they did knowing the significance of the location).

[[WMG: Canterlot Castle is built out of the cave from "Hearth's Warming Eve", that's why the Fire of Friendship burns above it]]
Makes sense, dunnit?

[[WMG: Celestia purposefully gave the Apple family land near the Everfree forest]]
She suspected that their bloodline would produce a bearer of an Element of Harmony just in time for Nightmare Moon's return. And she wanted them near the Elements when the time came.

[[WMG: The origin of Zap Apples]]
They are stated to be unlike any other apples seen due to their magical nature. And the color of the apples and the way in which the growth cycle happens [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E16SonicRainboom to look a little bit familiar.]] The creation of a brand new magical fruit would be a pretty good way to get into legends, while the extremely small time frame to collect them could cause some doubt in the story.

[[WMG: Ponyville has been destroyed and abandoned before]]
In Winter Wrap-Up, Twilight mentions that Ponyville was founded by Earth Ponies, and that for hundreds of years they've never used magic to wrap up winter. Considering that Ponyville was founded within Granny Smith's lifetime and upwards of four generations ago (Diamond Tiara's great grandfather was also a founder), this potentially means that Ponyville was destroyed and the Everfree Forest reclaimed the territory. It's not like there's any shortage of things that could do it. Everfree critters like the green dragon, or the Ursas, or a parasprite infestation could destroy it and force relocation. War with a hostile lifeform might have forced its relocation (slaving Diamond Dogs probably would make for a good one). Hell, Ponyville was almost destroyed by the cows. This assumes that both Granny Smith and Twilight's recollection are correct and they don't live abnormally long lives.

[[WMG: The story in the Hearth's Warming Eve play was completely fictional.]]
The ponies know this, but the story is simply an old tale to show how friendship is good and how hate can be deadly. A lot of things about it go against what we know about the story universe. For one, Ponyville, along with many other areas of Equestria, need to be maintained in order to function. The animals must be woken out of hibernation, the snow must be cleared, the weather is on a controlled schedule, plants must all be planted, etc. Then there was the whole matter of unicorns being the ones to raise the sun in the play, yet they have a flag featuring Princesses Celestia and Luna. So really, it was just a story made up about the magic of friendship, and it spread around and eventually got linked to a holiday.

[[WMG: The old country is habitable again]]
Some ponies that did not emigrate to Equestria set their differences aside and reclaimed the old country. Photo Finish is from there (thus explaining her accent; the lands would not have a common language anymore).

[[WMG: Rocks are edible]]
We know Pinkie's got an IronStomach, with her ability to eat [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E2ElementsOfHarmony spicy food]] and [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E12CallOfTheCutie burnt food]], who's to say she didn't get it [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E23TheCutieMarkChronicles eating rocks on her family's rock farm?]]

[[WMG: Equestria is a PlanetEris where citizens go on epic world-saving quests quite frequently.]]
The Mane 6 don't get nearly enough respect for saving the town from a dragon, much less the two seperate instances they saved the world from an EldritchAbomination. No one in Ponyville feels any lingering resentment towards Spike for his puberty-induced rampage, or seems particularly put out that they have to rebuild for the second time, after previously being decimated by parasprites. And the Apple family didn't even see fit to mention to Applebloom that oh yeah, Granny founded this town after she figured out how to summon psychedelic apples with hillbilly folk magic. How does everypony just take this stuff in stride?

Because by Equestrian standards, this stuff is no big deal. The world is routinely imperiled by cosmic evils, random ponies are called upon to save it, large swatches of civilization become collateral damage, and no one thinks twice about it. Maybe a big celebration will be held after a really important victory, like Discord's defeat. But the Mane 6 can't expect to coast on that one for too long and impress anypony, because the next day Lyra Heartstrings, Octavia, and Vinyl Scratch stopped an alien invasion with ThePowerOfMusic, Dr. Whooves, Derpy, and Colgate fixed a disturbance in the time stream, and even Blueblood, panicking and fumbling the whole time, stopped the ZombieApocalypse through sheer dumb luck. Every single day a background pony awesomes[[hottip:*:awesome is a verb now]] their way through an adventure worthy of a summer blockbuster, and we're simply never shown these adventures because they don't pertain to Twilight and friends.

[[WMG: Equestria is contained in a {{Pocket Dimension}}.]]

While in many ways, Equestria seems to exist within our own dimension, there are many factors saying that it does not, such as the existance of magic, and the fact that the sun and the moon have to be physically/magically moved by sentient beings, rather then by gravity. How then, can it exist?

The answer? Equestria is contained within a pocket dimension created by both Celestia and her sister.

While it is impossible to prove this theory, there are some strong factors weighing in it's favor. Consider:

* The sun and moon: While the realm of MLP appears to be similar to our own (with varied landscapes, seasons, a sky/atmosphere, etc.) there's one big difference between their world and ours: the sun and the moon have to be manually raised and lowered by Celestia and Luna every day and night. Based upon what we know of astronomy, and the rotation of planets, it is impossible for this to take place in our universe, as Equestria either is a planet that doesn't rotate, or it is situated around an inert sun and moon. Considering the unlikeliness of a pony being able to move a star, it seems reasonable that, in a pocket dimension that is completely under Celestia and Luna's control, they can bend the very fabric of it's reality to suit their needs.

* The existence of magic: An obvious difference between the world of MLP and our own is the existence of magic, although there is the possibility that the ponies of this world utilize some form of energy that our science cannot yet detect. But if the world of MLP takes place in a pocket dimension, then again, Celestia and Luna can institute laws and rules in it's physics, similar to how the machines in {{The Matrix}} programed the artificial world to resemble earth at it's peak, with most of it's inhabitants being unable to tell that what they were living in was, in fact, an illusion.

* The strong emphasis on friendship and cooperation: While individual ponies are varied in temperament and personality, the main drive of pony society seems to be the development of one's character, and the importance of sharing and beneficial relationships with one another. Such a society is bound to have far fewer conflicts then, say, a society that is devoted to acquiring wealth and material goods, or one that believes it is their right to rule the world. While we have yet to see any direct examples of pony society laying out it's beliefs, it is fair to assume that Celestia encourages all ponies in her dominion to focus on friendship.

* Hints as to previous events in pony history: Based on Pinkie Pie's party cannon, as well as Rainbow Dash naming her pet turtle, "Tank," it is reasonable to guess that ponies are aware of instruments of war, which suggests that, at certain points in Equestria's past, there were armed conflicts using weapons of war. While the combatants in these conflicts are anyone's guess (pony vs. pony, pony vs. dragons, etc.) the mere mention of these items suggests that the history of Equestria is not as idyllic as it would first seem. One would think that the three tribes of ponies engaged in armed conflict, but considering the level of technology they seemed to posses, it would be reasonable to assume that they would use cannons, and were not technically advanced enough to use tanks, suggesting that there were armed conflicts with 21rst century weaponry between then, and the era of Twilight Sparkle and friends.

With the sun and moon being physically moved, the existence of magic, hints to a darker past in Equestria, and the drive for friendship and cooperation in pony society, the true nature of Equestria can be theorized as thus:

At some point in the far distant pass, all the nations/cities/etc. in Equestria were at war with each other, possibly due to pony society being in a state similar to many countries today (with the mindset to obtain wealth and material goods, and less on personal growth). As a result of the warfare and fighting, Equestria was devastated, possibly beyond it's ability to heal or be repaired, resulting in a wasteland in which little to no life could live. Celestia and Luna, being the only survivors of the royal family (theorizing that their parents had been killed in the conflict, which would explain their absence), saw the ruins of their kingdom, and realized that they could not return life to the planet. Thus, combining the might of their powers, they were able to create a pocket dimension, and created a copy of Equestria. The two worked to perfect it, creating weather, physics, etc. as well as the illusion of the stars and the universe, working hard to erase every trace and hint that could reveal to the ponies that they were living in a simulated reality.

During this time, Celestia and Luna also created the elements of harmony, intending to use them as a safety device, should either of them ever fail in their tasks, ensuring that there would always be a powerful force for good within the dimension.

Once everything was ready, they took the surviving wildlife, as well as all the surviving ponies of Equestria's destruction and inserted them into the pocket dimension, taking care to erase from memory the destruction of their homeland. With everything in place, Celestia and Luna allowed the dimension to start up, and run at it's own speed, without any interference from them. However, Discord, who had been among the survivors inserted, quickly realized that he could take control of the realm, and set about to do so. Realizing that his power was too great, Celestia and Luna entered the dimension themselves and defeated him.

Realizing that even within this dimension, the ponies faced threats, Celestia and Luna decided to remain inside, and to guide Equestria's rebirth themselves. Thus, they worked to reshape pony society, so that it focused on friendship, cooperation, and self-development, all in the hopes of avoiding another catastrophic war that had destroyed Equestria before. Thus far, their plan has succeeded, and if Equestria continues on it's current course, the recurrence of another war seems very unlikely.

In short, Celestia and Luna created a magical dimension (a Matrix, so to speak) for ponies, to try and re-create society with a more sustainable outlook on life, to try and eliminate the conditions that led to Equestria's prior destruction.

[[WMG: In the FIM universe, gems grow like plants.]]
There's a lot of evidence to suggest this. One, gems seem to be in GREAT abundance. Still considered valuable (likely for their beauty, and from what we've seen, some gems are rarer than others) but Rarity can obtain them easily enough to cover her designs in them. There are apparently plenty buried just a few inches under ground. No one has a problem with Spike or other dragons eating gems, and Mr. and Mrs. Cake even made him a cupcake covered in Sapphires. Considering that dragons seem to subsist heavily on gems, there's likely some replenishing source. During "The Secret of My Excess", Spike mentions aging a Fire Ruby for months, which implies putting some control over it's qualities like size. Then, in "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000", Spike makes a reference to "sapphire season", which implies a certain time of the year when it's best to get sapphires. How would that be possible if sapphires didn't grow or replenish in some way?
* If this is canon, then the rock farm in Pinkie Pie's flashback would finally make sense. Maybe all mineral formations grow like plants. We've already seen that nature in Equestria doesn't work like it does in our world, after all.

[[WMG: Another timeline.]]
[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E13HearthsWarmingEve >>]] The Fire of Friendship and the founding of Equestria.\\
[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E17HeartsAndHoovesDay >>]] The original alicorn princess and the love poison.\\
[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E1TheReturnOfHarmonyPart1 >>]] Our lord and master Discord, the great draconequus.\\
[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E1TheReturnOfHarmonyPart1 >>]] The Elements of Harmony and the sister princesses.\\
[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E1MareInTheMoon >>]] The Mare in the Moon and the long lonesome reign.\\
[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E11FamilyAppreciationDay >>]] Ponyville, a tale of timber wolves and zap apples.\\
[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E23TheCutieMarkChronicles >>]] The [[MeaningfulName Twilight]] [[{{Gotterdammerung}} of the Gods]] and the [[DawnOfAnEra dawn of a new era]].

[[WMG: Hearts and Hooves Day accidentally revealed Discord's origin story to us.]]
Let's consider the Equestrian history that we know:
-In Hearth's Warming Eve, we know that Equestria was founded by three great leaders, including a princess, Princess Platinum. (Also includes pegasus Commander Hurricane, who is referred to by masculine pronouns, so the real Hurricane might have been male)
-In Return of Harmony, we know that Discord once ruled Equestria (it was apparently founded before his appearance), and Celestia and Luna defeated him.
-In Hearts and Hooves Day, we know that Equestria was thrust into "chaos" (literal term used in the story) because a prince and princess lost themselves in each other's eyes. They neglected their royal duties and failed to slay a "dragon" that brought the chaos. No historical context is given for where in Equestrian history this comes in.
My theory: Platinum, Hurricane, and Puddinghead founded Equestria. A prince--possibly Commander Hurricane, for reasons that will be stated later--fell madly in love with Princess Platinum, and used a love potion to entrance her. Until then, Discord had felt intimidated by the great powers of the three windigo-slaying leaders, and didn't think he could successfully pull a coup. However, when the prince (again, possibly Hurricane) and Platinum became entranced with each other on the first Hearts and Hooves Day, Discord rose up and overthrew the last remaining leader, Puddinghead. He is referred to as a "dragon" in the myths because he's mostly dragon, and it's possible that "draconequus" had not been scientifically named yet. He then began the reign of chaos. However, during their obsessive romance, Platinum and the prince (possibly Hurricane) mated--without breaking eye contact, of course--and Platinum gave birth to twins Celestia and Luna. (The reason I suspect the prince is Hurricane: Celestia and Luna got their horns from Platinum, but had to get their wings from elsewhere.) Celestia and Luna discovered the Elements of Harmony and banished Discord for the first time. Somewhere in all this, someone broke Platinum and prince/Hurricane's eye contact, and that was when they figured out the antidote to the love poison.

[[WMG: The name of the titular contraption from [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E15TheSuperSpeedyCiderSqueezy6000 The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000]] gives us a hint about Equestrian calendar.]]
Just like there was a tradition in 20th century to give cutting-edge stuff [[{{Trope2000}} names that end with "2000"]] in order to make them look more [[{{Zeerust}} futuristic]], the same thing works for Equestria. And since 6000 seems to be their equivalent of 2000, it would indicate that the show takes place in 5900s according to the local calendar. The event from almost six thousand years ago that marks the beginning of the era (many millenia before Nightmare Moon rebellion) was probably the founding of Equestria as told in [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E13HearthsWarmingEve the holiday episode]], or maybe [[AfterTheEnd the overthrowing of the former human overlords]].
* Alternatively, it's like in the Dilbert cartoon, where the 6000 is just tacked on to make it sound more marketable.

[[WMG: Tartarus holds [[CanonForeigner Krastos The Glue Maker]]]]
The very mention of Tartarus is like a ChekhovsGun so there's a good chance e could come into the show. Maybe in the Royal Wedding two-parter?

[[WMG: Cloudsdale is a mobile sky fortress.]]
According to Episode 22, Equestria is exempt from the water cycle, requiring the pegasus to create a tornado to funnel water from the ground. The training video in the beginning states that this water is from, and I quote, "your local reservoir." Rainbow Dash implies that Cloudsdale chooses a different city each year to be the source of water, which we see at the end of the episode is funneled directly into the city, rather than some other complicated collection system. The only two explanations for this are that Equestria is very, very small, and it's cities are ''that'' close together (in spite of requiring trains to travel between them), or the entire city of Cloudsdale can move.
* Both? The train is relatively new to the towns(They went from Ponyville to Canterlot in a horse-drawn carriage in "The Best Night Ever", and can go on a whim when summoned by the Princess, Applejack as a young filly goes on hoof from the farm to Manehattan, and Fillydelphia is apparently just crossing the Everfree Forest, close enough that a bowling ball of Parasprites was able to get before stopping naturally). And from what we have seen, Cloudsdale is made of... well, Clouds, which Pegasi can easily move around.
* "Hearth's Warming Eve" showed that Equestria does have a natural water cycle. The ponies just don't rely on it.

[[WMG: The land surrounding Equestria is extremely dangerous and hard to get through.]]
Most of the ponies we've seen in Equestria have ''very'' little knowledge about anything outside of Equestria. Twilight Sparkle was the only pony in Ponyville who knew what a zebra was, and that's probably due to her bookworm status. The characters seen in the show, even Twilight, know almost nothing about dragons. Even smart, well-read characters like Twilight don't seem to have much knowledge about what lies beyond Equestria. Thus, it can be assumed that the land surrounding Equestria is harsh and dangerous. Very few ponies have ventured outside, and few beings from the outside have come into Equestria. Zecora is the only zebra who has been seen, and again, it's at the point where only a well-read character was able to identify her species/race. When something was happening to Spike in ''The Secret of My Excess'', Zecora, a character from the outer regions, was the only one who knew what was going on.

[[WMG: The accounts of the founding of Equestria were [[WrittenByTheWinners written by the second in commands]]]]
From the episode, the three tribe leaders were hot-headed, ignorant imbeciles that needed [[HyperCompetentSidekick the second in commands]] to function. [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation But from another point of view]] the SIC could have written the accounts with CharacterExaggeration or made themselves look like they were unappreciated hard workers who worked for idiots. Take the "Fizz-Ed" ep of {{Daria}}. It pointed out that just because your the only sane man and smarter than people it doesn't excuse you from just being in the shadows, snarking or plotting how to make things better or mock others who are higher authority than you. If under more extreme circumstances, Smart Cookie could have lead a revolution or become TheStarScream, Privet Pansy could have let her nerves lead a battalion to their deaths or let another army take victory and Clover the Clever could just wallow about always being in second place to the princess or unintentionally harm Princess Platnium.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Equestrian Culture]]
[[WMG:Ponies inherit the “first name” of their same gendered parent]]
Upon marriage they traditionally do not change their names.
This is the only inheritable name system that makes sense.
For example take Filthy Rich and daughter Diamond Tiara.
It's established that Filthy Rich's male ancestor was also named Filthy. Thus name inheritance is likely to be a factor in naming convention.
Also we have Shining Armor and Twilight Sparkle in the same generation with completely different names
Example study, the Apples:
Applebloom and Applejack and are both mares, while Big Macintosh does not appear to have Apple in his name and is a stallion.
Example genealogy. Granny Smith marries Grandpa Macintosh, produces a colt name Papa Macintosh. Unknown Grandpa marries Granny Apple, produces filly named Mama Apple.
Papa Macintosh and Mama Apple produce current generation of apples. Applejack and Applebloom inherit name from mother, big Macintosh inherits name from father.
One exceptions: Rarity and Sweetie Belle; Rarity would seem to be the kind of pony to drop a name, sort of like Chanel in real life. Likely her given name was something like Rarity Belle. Like wise her mother is likewise named Something Belle.
Likewise we can surmise that Twilight’s mother is likely Twilight something, as hinted by her resemblance to G1 twilight. Judging by the lack of armor on the father's cutie mark, it's likely Twilight’s father is name is Shining Something, possibly Shining Moon.
The only potential wrench in this are the Cakes. It possible that both were born with the name Cake. Thus it possible they were both distant(or rather squicky, not so distant) relatives. Thus both their children of both genders are named Cake.
It also possible that they were a slightly more liberal family and one spouse changed his/her name.
Also the collective family name is passed along matrilineal lines.
EG Granny smith's family is called the Smith family, however since her son is the father to the Apples, the subsequent generation is referred to as the Apple clan.
[[WMG: Humans, the Earth, and its various cultural trappings are fictional in Equestria.]]
Humans are mythological creatures which are popular subjects of fantasy literature in Equestria. Many of the elements of these stories (such as the fictional fantasy kingdom of France)have entered the popular consciousness. When ponies refer to something from the human world, they are actually making references to these stories. Everypony knows what a human skull and hand looks like just like almost anyone in the real world can identify a dragon even though they don't exist.
* This would probably explain (in fanon) Lyra Heartstrings's obsession with humans and human culture, going so far as sitting like a human and wanting to be one. After all, we know dragons don't exist, but which little kid doesn't want to be one at some point or other - even into adulthood?
** Always thought this exactly because of Lyra. my headcanon is that Lyra is what ponies call an "Anthro" which means she's the pony equivalent of a Furry. seeing as I see at least 50% of the ponies we've seen in Ponyville are kids or Mane Six age (young adults) (and I feel this is merely because most of the Adults are WORKING during the day, possibly even commuting to the closest big city), I think Lyra is also a Young Adult whoses just the pony version of a Furry :P I bet she even secretly is making a Human Cosplay.

[[WMG: Ponies in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' practice polygyny.]]
As a result of there being less males to go around.
* Real horses are the same way, stallions can't stand competition so they drive most of the mature males out of the herd.
* In the future, the six mane characters could all be "sister brides" to the same stallion.
* I chalk the apparent lack of males to the fact that the show's aimed at girls. Background characters in male-oriented shows tend to be male; with this show being aimed at girls, the background characters will tend to be female. Then again, I tend to subscribe heavily to the LiteraryAgentHypothesis.
* Pretty much jossed with Hearts and Hooves Day.

[[WMG: Pony funeral customs.]]
It's proven that in "Hearts and Hooves Day" that Death is canon. So, there are three types of pony funerals for each type.
* Earth Ponies are generally buried so they can return to Earth.
* Pegasi are practice Tibetan Sky Burial, where their bodies are devoured by scavengers so their bodies are in the sky. Fluttershy will have no problem with that, or a literal sky burial where they are buried in clouds.
* Unicorns practice cremation since they're magical and their bodies became free from the earthly realm. Their ashes are scattered or kept in urns like humans do, and their horns are often kept in display as a family's memento.
* Higher class ponies are encased in tombs engraved with elaborate designs, detailing their past lives.

[[WMG: Most of the male ponies are drafted to Equestria Army.]]
This is the reason why there are so few male ponies.
* The real question this raises is why is there a need for a draft? A secret war perhaps? But against who?
** ''Stallion with a winged skull cutie mark and a high-peaked combination cap:'' We shall purge the Universe of the Foul Forces of [[CareBears Care-a-Lot]]! Glory to the First Stallion to Die! FOR THE PRINCESS!
** Or, going with the AfterTheEnd theory, the last surviving pockets of humans are putting up a resistance and need to be exterminated.
** Also, it makes a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft_horse great pun]].
** So what's Big Mac's excuse, discharge due to injury?
*** Exception due to being the sole male provider within the immediate family?
** They're stationed at the border between Eqestria and the Griffon homeland; settlers ner the edge would otherwise get eaten.
* Or, if they're more like IRL horses, mares tend to be leaders and stallions tend to do more of the fighting. Stallions that aren't strong enough to become herd stallions tend to join bachelor herds of other stallions & train to get stronger. Since bands of rowdy young males will cause trouble unsupervised, or go looking for adventure and chances to impress the fillies, over Equestria's history these male bands took over responsibility for defense of the kingdom, dealing with things like the Parasprite infestation in Phillydelphia and most of the monsters that show up on the show all the time, at least the ones that make trouble.
** So there are two Equestrias: the 'civilian'/matriarchal Equestria shown in the show, which is the old, the young, mares and the few stallions able to avoid being kicked out by the other stallions as competition because they're strong (Big Macintosh) or really good at something (Mr. Cake), and the 'male' Equestria, a genderflipped AmazonBrigade focused on training (in civilian pursuits as well as combat), making it into Celestia's forces proper (fighting the good fight and impressing the fillies) and so on?
* Definitely useful for something like [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7043707/1/PonyCraft_Friends_of_Equestria this]].

[[WMG: There is about a 50/50 split between colts and fillies in Equestria]]
The reason there seems to be more females than males is pure dumb luck; Ponyville just happens to have a population disparity favoring fillies. If you were to go visit a larger city like Fillydelphia or Manehattan, you'd get a much more accurate cross-section of the Equestrian population as a whole. Most of the straight fillies in Ponyville are either single, or in long-distance relationships.

[[WMG: The Equestria national anthem is...]]
... a waltz inspired theme. Why? A canter, in horse-riding is a controlled 3 beat gait. Waltz are written in 3/4 key. It would be both Fridge Brilliance and Shown Their Work from the show's musical direction. Any composer bronies out there, take note.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZISo1NFO7AQ&feature=related Is]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B-DN8D0dh8&feature=related this]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj97_JIp22k good?]]
** This is not a waltz. It's in 4/4 time, not 3/4 time.

[[WMG: We won't see '''even one''' blacksmith before the last season of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''.]]
In a land of horses, we haven't seen one yet, even in the western town of Appleloosa. They know what anvils are (we've seen two, so far), and they know how to play a game of horseshoes, but not one character actually '''wears''' horseshoes (we have seen boots and shoes that fit over hooves, but that's it).
* Look at the tracks that the Cutie-Mark Crusaders leave in "Stare Master" that Fluttershy follows into the Everfree Forest: the Crusaders are clearly wearing horseshoes.

[[WMG: Horseshoes are used as throwing weapons.]]
Either nopony wears horseshoes anymore in lieu of advancement in footwear technology, or horseshoes are a (negative) status symbol used as punishment. Having permanent horseshoes implies one is being forced into labor to atone for a crime. Due to their aerodynamic nature, however, horseshoes are used as highly symbolic thrown weapons, perhaps associated with law enforcement or JUSTICE in general. This also elevates Applejack and Rainbow Dash's game of horseshoes into the pony equivalent of [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotAwesome a knife-throwing contest.]]
* Hmm. As shown in "Owl's Well That Ends Well" and "Look Before You Sleep", Twilight Sparkle does seem to keep one mounted over her mantel, the traditional place to display a firearm or other weapon, two mounted above her bed (for quick access in case she's woken by an intruder), as well as at least one, presumably more, cached away in various drawers where no one can see them; if you view them as weapons, that... [[CrazyPrepared doesn't actually seem out of character for Twilight]].

[[WMG: "Anybody" and "anypony" are both valid in speech.]]
Rainbow Dash says "and I couldn't risk a goody four-shoes like you giving that ticket away to just anybody!". Probably a slip of the tongue that was missed, but it's perfectly possible that anybody is correct with the presence of (or when talking about) characters like Spike, the sea serpent, the dragon in the mountain, Zecora, and Gilda. You know, not ponies. Hell, Rainbow Dash could've been accounting for the possibility that Twilight could give it to Spike.
* Twilight specifically uses "anybody" in ''Over a Barrel'' when lamenting the feud between the ponies and buffalo, because neither of them will "be reasonable".

[[WMG: Ponyville is a multiracial experiment.]]
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy could have spent their whole lives without meeting a single wingless pony, barely paying attention to the world under the clouds. Finding an unicorn in the wild west of Equestria is almost as difficult. But princess Celestia decided to take a small city, founded by earth ponies, and encourage immigration of both unicorns and pegasi. Ponyville is now considered a fairly unique case by sociologists and biologists alike.
* Then why didn't they know about zebras? Not to mention the xenophobia in that episode. Kind of weird for a community whose hat would be diversity.
** Zebras aren't ponies, as Twilight Sparkle said in that episode. And even a successful blend between three kinds isn't automatically ready to welcome a fourth.
* Also, we see both Earth Ponies and Unicorns in Manehattan in "Cutie Mark Chronicles".
** Yet still no pegasus.
* This theory could very well be true. Appleloosa is mostly an earth pony town, Cloudsdale is a completely pegasus city, and from what we've seen of Canterlot, it seems to have a unicorn majority, according to the ponies seen in the "At The Gala" song.

[[WMG: 'Everfree' is a Pony euphemism for death.]]
Thus, the Everfree Forest is, in less gentle terms, the [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace Forest of Death]].
* So when a pony dies, others would say they've been 'Everfreed'? Sounds a bit like [[ReleasedToElsewhere a certain other euphemism]] [[TheGiver from a popular book...]]

[[WMG:''Supernaturals'' was originally written in Zebra, and was rather poorly translated into Pony.]]
Using the word ''supernatural'' to mean ''a super, natural medication'' is just a ''bit'' of a stretch. However, it's possible that Zebra uses the same words for ''nature'' and ''natural remedy''. Thus, somepony at some point translated a book about traditional remedies from Zebra into Pony; unfortunately, this equine had a somewhat dodgy grasp of one of the languages, with the result that ''Super Natural Remedies'' became ''Supernaturals''.

Zecora probably has a copy in the original Zebra as well, and presumably obtained a Pony copy in case she ever needed a pony to help her with some formulation.

[[WMG: The name "Rarity" is actually a [[OneSteveLimit very common one]].]]
The mane cast eventually finds other ponies that share that name, which would make our Rarity feel sad and begins to think that she's not special any longer. but they eventually learn that you're still a unique pony regardless of what kind of name you have.

[[WMG: Environmental management is Equestria's version of compulsory military service.]]
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy's regular careers are in environmental management (weather maintenance and animal care respectively), but everyone else pitches in in Winter Wrap-Up. Rarity and Pinkie Pie have regular jobs, yet they switch straight into nest-making and ice-scoring on the designated day without a second thought for what else they'd be doing that day. It seems to be taken for granted that the whole town (and probably the whole country) steps away from their usual pursuits to handle Winter Wrap-Up (and probably a few other dates throughout the year), similar to the way that some countries require all citizens to perform a few weekends of military training per year.

[[WMG: In Equestria, female is the dominant gender.]]
Equestria is a [[LadyLand Lady Land]] society not run by males, but by females. All of the political leaders are not female because a princess is glamorous, but because a conservative Pony belief is that the females are more suited for leadership roles. That's why the show focuses on a strong female cast of characters- within the realms of their society, they would function as a male roles. In a similar vein to the novel, Egalia's Daughters, the men become "masculists," as opposed to real-life feminism. They've worked their way up into equal standing with the females, but some conservative ways are still around, such as the sparkley atmosphere.

[[WMG: Equestria is actually a highly militarized society, but they specialize more in non-lethal methods.]]
Despite Celestia practically being a living god, she has a very hooves-off approach to any dangers that affect the world, trusting the ponies themselves to deal with their own problems. The reason they can deal with a rampaging dragon, without resorting to the medieval method of just slaying it, is because they've been receiving covert training their entire lives. Training so covert, that even the trainers (read as, the adult ponies) don't even know they're giving it. Young ponies are encouraged to find their own special talent, whatever it may be, and once it's discovered, the Cutie Mark appears. This mark is both easy identification ("A rainbow lightning bolt. That's Rainbow Dash.", for example) and an easy way to tell just what the pony's talent is, ("She can fly very fast.") Part of the training is recognizing when a specific talent is needed. Combining the three, one can easily determine just who, and what, to look for to solve it. Part of this training is the focus on finding nonviolent, peaceful methods of resolving a problem; diversion, persuasion, compromise, sometimes intimidation, humiliation, and shame.
With this training, and sort of military, in place, Equestria's means of defense is exactly where it belongs; in the hooves of the average pony, who, without knowing, have been conditioned and trained to know exactly who to go to and what to in the context of any given emergency.
* Of course, this begs the question of Equestria's equivalent of RightWingMilitiaFanatics...

[[WMG: Calling a pony "lame" is a mortal insult.]]
In RealLife, if a horse or pony becomes fully lame, it is often put down, as the horse is unlikely ever to be able to walk, let alone run or work, again. (This is less true in the modern day, but was very true in previous eras.) When Gilda calls the ponies of Ponyville "lame", she's saying that she thinks they're all worthless and hopes they all die. Gilda hates ponies.
* Alternatively, hailing from a different culture, doesn't quite get the full implications of the insult.
* Apple Bloom felt mortified when Sweetie Belle mentioned the idiom "Break a leg". So "lame" and similar connotations about the inability to walk under your own power might be more negative to ponyfolk.
* And it's not the only topic like this, either. Consider now the term "horse's ass." Foals typically leave their mother's womb via the rear exit, so calling a pony a "horse's ass" could probably serve as a YourMom slam. Unless, of course, said pony's birth is what made his mother into a HotMom. Then he might not mind so much.

[[WMG: There's a Winter Moon Celebration.]]
The Summer Sun Celebration celebrates the longest day of the year. Wouldn't it also make sense that there'd be a likewise celebration for the longest night? It's much the same, except it has Luna raising the moon, though until her freedom, Celestia handled that one too. We might see this eventually.

[[WMG:Equestrian society is inspired from Literature/BraveNewWorld.]]
In Equestrian society happiness is of the utmost importance. After the terrible chaos and suffering of Discord's rule, everypony wanted stability instead of the anarchy of previous years. After defeating Discord the two Royal sisters began to implement these ideas; however they came to blows over the exact implementation of these ideas. Equestrian society today is ruled as a soft-version of Brave New World. Our Mane Cast are Alpha and Beta, which explains why they are assigned leader roles and why they are friends with each other. Background ponies are often seen repeated many times in the background; this is because they are genetically identical, bred under identical conditions. This means there are hundreds of Lyra Heartstrings and Bon Bons, for instance. Derpy (with cross eyes) is simply a mistake - she is too intelligent for her assigned caste, she has to act slow to fit in. Family relations are discouraged which explains the lack of parental influence; but as Celestia is benovelent she lets traditional farming families like the Pie's and the Apple's stay.
* Methinks [[WMG/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicPinkiePie somepony]] might be overusing Soma.

[[WMG: Libraries in Equestria, including the one in Ponyville, are not organized alphabetically.]]
They're organized according to the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%BClmen_Pony Dülmen]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dewey_decimal_system Decimal System]], of course! That's why it didn't occur to Twilight to look for the book on the Elements of Harmony under 'E'; the only reason Pinkie Pie was able to find it that way is because of her [[RealityWarper reality-warping]] abilities.

[[WMG: Nightmare Night was originally a Tax Collection event]]
Originally Luna was in charge of the Equestria's finances, and she would come to collect taxes annually on Nightmare Night, starting off the tradition of a holding a fair to collect the year's tribute. Naturally many would show up disguised in order to evade Taxes. The macabre theme reflected the whole inevitability of Taxes. However after Luna turned to evil, that night became associated with Nightmare Moon. Add one thousand years of cultural evolution and the original purpose of the event was forgotten. But it still remains vestigially as the Candy Tribute.

[[WMG: Nightmare Night and how it fits with the pilot]]
The story of the fight between Celestia and Luna/NMM is true. It was recorded as such.
Over time as the story was told to younger ponies, they began dismissing it as an "old pony's tale" and NMM transformed from a true threat into a boogeyman, used to get fillies to eat their vegetables. Nightmare Night and NMM came together due to their similar names over the course of 1000 years. When NMM returned in S1, the ponies were all shocked that their boogeyman was ''real''.

[[WMG: Equestira has a naming ceremony similar to ''Genpuku'']]
''Genpuku'' is a Japanese coming of age ceremony which marks entry into adulthood. A part of said ceremony is the giving of an adult name to the child. There is a high number of ponies who have names very appropriate to their Cutie Marks, suggesting that it's not uncommon for ponies to change or choose a new name for themselves that reflect their Cutie Marks. The Cuteceañera could be, or at least started out as, a ceremony which made these name choices official. How widely this is observed may vary from pony family to pony family, and there may be those who keep their original name (Twilight Sparkle had her name pre-Cutie Mark), or choose a different one entirely (possible Cherilee)

[[WMG: Wizard hats were made with unicorns in mind.]]
Originally, the hat helped to conceal a unicorn's horn, either to disguise the unicorn when out amongst less magical equines or as an antiquated decency thing. Some hats may even have helped amplify or channel the horn's magic, as might've been the case with Star Swirl the Bearded's belled cap. However, over time, the hat became an artifact, and a novelty in of itself.
* Alternatively or in addition, the hat may simply have served to conceal the horn's glow when the unicorn in question is actually using magic -- assuming that that is in fact an in-universe phenomenon and not just RuleOfPerception.

[[WMG: Offensive magic is forbidden from being taught in Equestria.]]
Twilight doesn't seem to do things like fling fireballs or ice beams at her enemies when it seems to be a good time to do so. Offensive magic is probably either banned or limited as a way of keeping peace.
* Considering that Twilight caused quite a bit of trouble in ''Lesson Zero'' with just "regular" magic, that's probably a good idea.
** Jossed as of ''A Canterlot Wedding'' - Twilight Sparkle definitely throws magic blasts around. Though that could of course be self-thought from some obscure books.
** The same episode also has the brief BeamOWar between Celestia and Chrysalis. More likely, most ponies just don't see much ''need'' for dedicated combat magic in their everyday lives -- earth ponies and pegasi can't learn it anyway and unicorns already have their always-handy telekinesis. Why waste time on spells that can ''only'' be used to hurt another living being if you're a civilian and that's not even your job?

[[WMG: The standard ranged weapon for Equestrian guards is the [[SufferTheSlings sling]].]]
In "May The Best Pet Win!", Rainbow Dash mentions being as fast as a bullet. Assuming that this isn't just a throwaway gag line, this sounds like it implies guns... but may be talking about sling bullets instead. A sling would be much easier for an earth pony or pegasus to handle than a bow, after all.

[[WMG: It is traditional to suspend school for a day once someone gets their cutie mark.]]
Probably to increase confidence in the young filly by giving them a chance to show off in front of the entire class. Or because it's a good chance for a nice class activity. It's either this, or Cheerilee is a very laid-back teacher.
* Alternately, Cheerilee had scheduled some physical exercise for later that afternoon, and when she saw Apple Bloom's new cutie mark, decided to leverage it into an earlier-than-planned workout.
* Cheerilee ''is'' a child of the 80s, after all. Maybe it was nostalgia for her youth.

[[WMG: The Ponyville bowling alley is a front for the Equestiran Mafia.]]
After all, the owner is named "Mr. Kingpin".

[[WMG: The Hearth's Warming Eve pageant is traditionally reinterpreted by the actors chosen to play it.]]
Because really, what are the odds that the Earth Pony Chancellor was a CloudCuckoolander like Pinkie Pie? Besides, this is before Celestia's time - the leaders' real names and personalities may be lost to history. So when actors are chosen to portray the pageant, they apply their own personalities and interpretations to the story. If, say, the Crusaders and three classmates performed their own pageant at school, the leaders would be very different ponies, although the overall story would be the same.
* While we don't really know how far back the events go, it wouldn't be ''totally'' unrealistic if relevent info, such as the leaders names and personalities, survived in records to the present day. After all, we know the names of a great deal of the names of the pharohs going back 5000 years.

[[WMG: It is traditional to burn one or more Wendigos on Hearth's Warming Eve.]]
An ''outdated'' tradtion to be sure, but... at the time of Equestria's founding, Wendigos had apparently grown so populous as to not only force ponies to migrate but also to nearly threaten the new land themselves. Therefore, Wendigo hunts were common and, after Clover the clever documented HOW to burn a Wendigo, the bodies were often thrown to the flame. When it was realized how pretty the flames were, the ponies connected them with Hearth's Warming Eve, and so they would almost always set them ablaze on that special day. In modern times, this act is seen as somewhat reprehensible, in addition ot the Wendigos being an endangered species; very few ponies, outside the heritage obsessed unicorns of Canterlot, still practice this tradition.

[[WMG: The Idea of an Alicorn precedes Celestia and Luna.]]
As we saw at the end of [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E13HearthsWarmingEve the play]], the flag shown has two Alicorns on it. If the events of the play takes place before Celestia and Luna are born, how can the ponies think to put Allicorns on the flag? Because the idea of the Alicorn had alredy existed. The sentiments behind it, the best characteristics and talents of all three pony races present in a single pony, was either created by, or be very appealing to, the Pony Pan-Nationalists, the Clover the Clevers, Smart Cookies and Private Pansy's of the world. So when the three tribes became friends and put aside their differences, they decided to put the Heraldric Symbol of Pony Unity on their flag.

[[WMG: Economically, politically, technological, but mostly socially, Equestria is in the Age of Enlightenment/Industrial Revolution]]

This is going to be a long one...

We do know that their was a "dark ages" (the time of Discord) which has since passed and a "middle ages" (time under both the Alicorn's rule) which are both considered to be part of Equestria's history. Luna was acting much like a mid-evil monarch trying to gain the loyallity of her people by giving a demonstration of her power with her voice (in the midages, people were more loyal to their region rather than their nation, thus kings and queens needed to remind their subject why they bowed to them).

Equestria appears to be in some kind of industrialization far away from the tiny little farm town of Ponyville. Skyscrapers and a large city exists atleast in Manehatten. The most obvious fruit of their labor is the train, which is new enough that ones going on longer journey's need some strong Earth Ponies to pull it. Earth Ponies appear to be the leaders in this new field, and growing into a new rich factory owners. It is cutting into the old Unicorn nobility, who have been the sole wealthy ponies in Equestria up till now. The evidence of that are the extreme amount of Unicorns in Canterlot, and how in the play the only "rolayity" that appeared as a reperentative was the one from the unicorns (and the fact almost all Earth Pony's appeared to be little more than serfs). This new Earth Pony elite, however, has forced the Unicorn's to welcome some of these Earth Ponies into Canterlot's high society in a desperate plead for their status to survive.

Pegasus society appeared to have already moved on from it's Roman militarism to a society based around sports, similar to the revivial of the Olympics being reformed not as tribute to the gods done by warrior's, but competition done by athletes.

Some Earth Pony's are moving into what was once inhosbilitable lands surrounding Equestria, similar to the migration west in the Old West.

Princess Celestia's use of Twilight to research more into the mysteries of magic parallels Enlightened monarchs spending lots of money on scientists to increase their own prestiege and their appearance of wisdom. Celestia seams to be atleast trying to become more directly connected to the common man, also a trait of some Enlightenment era kings.

With Unicorn magic increasing the spread of technology (magically making something work is a very helpful trait for ingenuity and ivention) one has to wonder how quickly they will get to the modern era.

* Building off of this, Equestria may undergo democratic reforms (or going into full CrackFic mode, a ''revolution'') at some point.

[[WMG: The ponies of Equestria use the same naming conventions as [[HorseRacing Horse Racing]].]]
...thus explaining the inconsistency of names. Sometimes, a pony is named after an obvious physical characteristic (Rainbow Dash's mane or Pinkie Pie's pinkness), sometimes the name has to do with their personality (Fluttershy's shyness), follows a theme (Applejack and the Apple family), and sometimes the name just sounds cool (Rarity) or ironic (Twilight Sparkle).

And, well, come on. Just tell me that "Red Rum", "Man o' War", or "Seabiscuit" (for example) would sound out-of-place as names for characters in the show.

[[WMG: In Equestria, "I Spy" was made as a sight-seeing game.]]
Several folks have remarked, tongue-in-cheek, that the game of "I Spy" in the beginning of ''Hearth's Warming Eve'' was not how you play it; you're supposed to guess what they spy, not just have it pointed out. Here in Equestria, however, it was made as a sight-seeing game, so a pony could focus on one thing at a time instead of getting discombobulated by all the wonderful things to see.

[[WMG: Equestria's upper class are all NonIdleRich.]]
Every adult Equestrian has a cutie mark, and thus a special talent, even seemingly useless ponies like Prince Blueblood and Jet Set. Having a special talent and never bothering to exercise it seems like a good way to court Cutie Mark Failure Insanity Syndrome or just deep dissatisfaction with one's life, and all the evidence points to ponies throwing themselves into the use of their talents regradless of monetary concerns. Rich ponies might not apply their talents in a way that actually makes money, but they all devote at least a few hours a day to their talents nonetheless.

[[WMG: Pegasi do not form traditional families in the way that unicorns and earth ponies do.]]
Think about it: we've never seen any relatives on any pegasus character. We've seen Twilight's parents, Rarity's parents and little sister, Applejack's extended family, and Pinkie's parents and sisters, but we've never seen, nor heard any reference to Rainbow's family, nor Fluttershy's, nor Scootaloo's. And if you think about it, this makes sense: we know from "Hearthswarming Eve" that the pegasi were originally a heavily militaristic society, so it would make sense if they had a Spartan notion that children should be raised in common as part of their early military training.

[[WMG: Mixed-type marriages are not widespread nor socially accepted]]
While crossbreeding between unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies was confirmed, it seems to be extremely rare. All couples shown in canon so far are of the same type, and Carrot Cake could only name two, extremely spread cases of other type of pony in the his and his wife's family trees.

[[WMG: In Equestria, mirrors have the same sort of symbolism to ponies as [[DeliveryStork storks and cabbage patches]] have to humans.]]
That is, it's common to tell young ponies about where baby ponies come from by telling them that they emerged from magic mirrors. In the same way that people would claim that babies were delivered by storks or hidden in cabbage patches. Perhaps it's even traditional to give a mirror to a newly married couple as a wedding gift so that they're symbolically blessed with a family in the future.

[[WMG: Unicorns often carry their heads high for a practical reason rather then snobbery.]]
That practical reason is to not poke each other's eyes out.

[[WMG: Earth ponies are traditionally named after food.]]
let's see, we've got pinkie PIE, [=APPLEjack=], chancellor [=PUDDINGhead=], smart COOKIE(?), the CAKE family, CARROT top, etc. this is only tradition, and not a hard and fast rule. It probably stems from the fact that the earth ponies originally grew food.
* A lot of them have flower names, but again, flowers are both decoration and food in Equestria.
* Specifically, they seem to be traditionally named after the food whose production they're most involved in. The Apple family grows apples, Pinkie Pie and the Cakes are bakers...so this could easily have started out based on a notion of "learn a pony's name and know who to go to come shopping time".

[[WMG: In Equestria, social bullying is considered to be much worse than physical violence.]]
While there is no shortage of monsters willing to deal physical violence to the ponies, all of the antagonistic ponies we've seen so far have been socially antagonistic (Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, Prince Blueblood, Jet Set and Upper Crust, Trixie, Hoops, Quarterback and Dumbbell). We haven't seen Rainbow Dash or Apple Bloom being physically beaten up by their respective bullies, just made fun of. On the other hand, the Cutie Mark Crusaders descend into a BigBallOfViolence at the drop of a hat, and the mane cast are often casually violent with each other, and ''it's not a big deal''. When they hurt each others' feelings, though, it's time for a big apology and a letter to Princess Celestia. Since friendship is basically the only thing keeping Equestria safe and functional, this makes sense. It also fits with the behaviour of real-world horses - horses bite each other when they're annoyed, but the way to make a horse truly suffer is to shun it from the herd.
* The fact that Equestrian Ponies are shown to be MadeOfIron further shows this. If a pony can survive having an anvil dropped on them, something that is FATAL to humans, then less extreme physical violence really not an issue.

[[WMG: The shapes taken by the Elements of Harmony, based off the Mane Six's cutie marks, will come over time to be associated in Equestria with the Elements themselves.]]
The apple for honesty, the butterfly for kindness, the lightning bolt for loyalty, etc.

[[WMG: Hokey Smoke, Queen Meanie, and Black Snootie are all figures from Equestrian literature.]]

[[WMG: Ancient temples, the Sapphire Statue/Stone, and Ahuizotl don't exist in Equestria.]]
They were all just made up for the book.

[[WMG: The word "cutie" in "cutie mark" is a corruption of an archaic word for "talent".]]
Somepony, probably a literary great, made a pun and the term "cutie mark" stuck.

[[WMG: Ponies call their heaven "Elysium".]]
We now know that Tartarus is pony hell. Since Tartarus is hell in Greek mythology, and Elysium is heaven, calling their heaven Elysium would make sense.
* Aside from how calling Tartarus "hell" and Elysium "heaven" is a gross oversimplification Twilight only stated that there were monsters imprisoned in Tartarus.
** In [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tartarus historical Tartarus]], Tartarus was the actually Greek equivalent of Hell - it not only housed all the evil monsters that were threats to the gods (much as Twilight mentions), but there was also a section as punishment for sinners, where the punishment justifies the crime.
*** The Greeks didn't have a concept of sin, just pissing off the JerkassGods.
* Tartarus is Hell at least [[{{Hell}} according to Neil Gaiman]]. (see page quote)

[[WMG: The Princesses imprisoned their divine predecessors and the Windigos and a host of other creatures in Tartarus]]
It's how that section of the Underworld was primarily used in the Greek myths.

[[WMG: 'Tartarus' is used as a curse word in Equestrian language.]]
Whether it be hell or not, it's very clear that all manner of bad things are in that place, so saying something like "Go to Tartarus!" would be quite harsh.

[[WMG: In the same vein, so is "[[Film/YoungFrankenstein blücher]]"]]
Even if it ''isn't'' actually the German word for "glue", it's mere mention will make any equine rear in terror.
* This troper is now curious as to what curse word "blucher" would replace...

[[WMG: Similar to the above, "feather" is a lighter versions of a PrecisionFStrike.]]
And since some bronies say "buck" to replace the f-word, perhaps "feather-bucking" or something could be legitimate curse. If "feather" is equivalent to a lighter curse word though, that makes Rainbow Dash calling Ditzy Doo a "featherbrain" quite harsh.
And now I think an entire dictionary of Equestrian swear words should be made.

[[WMG: Most foodstuffs made by ponies are not fit for human consumption.]]
Since equines have different dietary needs then human beings (not just a near absence of meat products and the presence of certain plants), their cuisine probably developed to be quite different from human ones. For example, there's probably double the amount of salt in the baked goods then what is considered normal for baked goods made for people.

[[WMG: Adult ponies without cutie marks are seen as incredibly creepy, because they don't exist naturally]]
A cutie mark is what makes you individual. If you don't have one, you're either a soulless freak or [[PsychopathicManchild just a foal]]. In dystopian cinema ponies have barcodes for cutie marks, [[CloningBlues clones have no cutie marks]] and ponies of mystery will not have them, ala TheBlank.
* So it's like StoryOfTheBlanks?

[[WMG: The Gray Unicorn guards aren't part of the royal guard]]
Rather, they're Praetorians, of sorts. The other regiments are bodyguards for the princesses, but the unicorn guard are tasked with defending Canterlot exclusively and are the only military force allowed within its walls.

[[WMG: Pizzas have not been invented by ponies.]]
I'm rather surprised that the single most popular party food is not seen at any party shown in the show. We've seen lots of birthday cake and cupcakes, but no pizza! A real shame too... Pizza is a great food to have, they don't even need to have any real meat on them.

[[WMG: Pony society is atheistic -- and not just the [[FlatEarthAtheist Flat Earth]] type either.]]
[[BrutalHonesty Yes, this]] ''[[BrutalHonesty is]]'' [[BrutalHonesty in part a]] [[TakeThat jab]] [[BrutalHonesty at the whole pervasive "Celestia ZOMG goddess!" meme]]. But consider that religion isn't actually ever brought up in the show, and then look at the world from the ponies' perspective: Day and night are managed by their very own royalty, magic as practiced by unicorns is essentially just another science with practical applications, and they ''know'' who's in charge of the weather, who [[PaintingTheFrostOnWindows paints the frost on their windows]], and generally how the world works. And suddenly the notion that if they ever held them in the first place, ponies may well long have {{outgrown such silly superstitions}} doesn't seem all ''that'' farfetched anymore...

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Science and Magic]]

[[WMG: On the Relative Power Levels of All Characters in Equestria]]
This is a list of characters/setting elements in Equestria, organized by magnitude of power. Feel free to add your own notes and observations on the topic.

The base list, which I have come up with, goes as follows:

* The Elements of Harmony
* ThePowerOfLove (i.e. Cadance + Shining Armour)
* Discord
* Nightmare Moon
* Celestia
* Luna
* Cadance
* Twilight Sparkle
* Shining Armour
* Rainbow Dash
* Fluttershy
* Rarity
* Applejack
* Pinkie Pie (sans RuleOfFunny)

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.
* ThePowerOfLove 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 RuleOfDrama 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 ThePowerOfLove 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 ThePowerOfLove.
** 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 PowerOfLove 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 [[hottip:"normal":As in, isn't feeding off of Shining Armor]] 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 RuleOfFunny is in play, she demonstrates RealityWarper 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, [[JackOfAllTrades the jack]], and is capable in a wide variety of situations with a number of athletic skills. Pinkie Pie, even without the RuleOfFunny, 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 order[[hottip:*:With the Proviso that a given situation may strongly favor one over another]] Rainbow Dash, Applejack/Rarity[[hottip:*:Too close to choose one over the other]], Pinkie Pie[[hottip:*:May be rated higher, depending on you opinion of her machines]], Fluttershy.
* 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 BreathWeapon, with only his natural armor to balance it out,[[hottip:*:putting him below the mane five]] 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.

[[WMG: The Sonic Rainboom is some sort of time-space shift.]]
It sends them to a seperate alternate universe every time it's used, and it's incredibly [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique risky]]. Think in The Cutie Mark Chronicles. [[spoiler: The first Sonic Rainboom shifts everyone's fates so suddenly and extremely, acting like a in-universe DeusExMachina. This sent them to the a more idealistic universe. Somewhere out there, there's a DarkerAndEdgier universe where they all grew up miserable. The second sent them to a nearly-the-same universe, with some slight changes in certain traits explaining, such as the increase in Pinkie's teleportation.]]
* ThisTroper JUST finished writing a fan fiction on that premise, without having seen this post.

[[WMG: The universe runs on friendship.]]
Literally. The physical laws of the universe is actually thinly held together. They break down constantly and require maintenance. Usually, they are held stable by magic. However, over 1000 years ago, Equestria figured out how to harness the power of magic, turning their realm into an Utopia, but at the cost of physics within the land slowly decaying. The royal family, possible the then young princess Celestia, gathered all ponies together, and organized them, taking over the responsibility of ensuring the season turns as supposed to, as well as such things as gravity and speed of light. This also nicely helped solve the recent unemployment problem.

[[WMG: Clouds are actually gaseous [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-newtonian_fluid non-newtonian liquid]] instead of water.]]
Non-newtonian liquids become solid when pressure is applied to them, and allows one to walk on water if done carefully, as seen in several YouTube videos. Clouds in Equestria are gaseous forms of these liquid, which allows them to remain airborne but still have enough liquid to be solid when comparably-light pegasi walk on them. The spell Twilight uses in "Sonic Rainboom" is really a spell that reduces earth ponies' weight to that of pegasi.
* Also explains why repeatedly stomping on a cloud causes it to dump its water onto whatever is below it.

[[WMG: Sonic Rainbooms warp reality.]]
First off, their very animation implies that they involve breaking a barrier that is not intended to be broken. Thus, the effects of pulling off such a move need to be seriously taken into consideration. They seemed simple at first when it was first seen in "Sonic Rainboom", briefly knocking witnesses out of character such as turning Fluttershy excitable and Rarity humble.

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 RealityWarper (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... [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZpurerF2HM this]] may be what Equestria reverts to!
*** It was broken a 3rd time in Lesson Zero, so we may be getting there…

[[WMG: The Sonic Rainboom is magic.]]
The prismatic wave (the rainbow-colored shock wave) is caused by the sonic pressure wave compressing the ambient magical energy of Equestria along with any magical energies emitted from the entity that obtained supersonic speeds. This compression would cause the magical energies to become temporarily visible and even enter a high intensity state.\\
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 ToonPhysics, 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.
With Rainbow Dash's Second Rainboom, it can be assumed that whatever spared Rainbow from being affected by the first Sonic Rainboom would be the reason why she, Rarity, and the Wonderbolts were unaffected by the second one. Also the second rainboom was close to the ground and the high intensity energies might not have reached all the way up to Cloudsdale, which is why nopony in the stadium was affected (as far as we know) by the high intensity energies.

[[WMG: {{Discworld}} science explains the sonic rainboom.]]
While only Unicorn Ponies can cast spells, Pegasus Ponies display many supernatural talents of their own, and Earth Ponies have at least their cutie marks as proof of an uncanny nature. But beyond the ponies themselves, all of Equestria appears to be a land of magic.\\
In this entry, we present evidence that the world of Equestria may in fact obey the conventional laws of physics under a {{Discworld}}-like BackgroundMagicField. 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.

[[WMG: A sonic rainboom requires the motivation of doing something for the sake of another.]]
In "Sonic Rainboom", Pinkie Pie says that Rainbow Dash is the only pony ever to have done it (though this can't be literally true, as there are apparently legends), and she'd only done it once before. When? Why, when racing some colts who were bullying Fluttershy about her weak flying! And her second time? Saving the life of Rarity and the Wonderbolts! Training could possibly help a pony with the necessary speed; alone, however, it could never cause a sonic rainboom, nor could trying to show one off. I wonder, if they were to research the legends of the sonic rainboom, they might discover ponies who were just trying to help their friends...

[[WMG: The power of the Elements of Harmony are hereditary.]]
Pinkie's grandmother taught Pinkie at a young age to "Giggle At the Ghosties" as a subtle way of teaching her how to properly wield ancient power of Laughter. No word yet about what the other characters' parents have taught them.
* Twilight's parents encouraged their daughter to practice magic.

[[WMG: Everypony has a connection to one of the Elements of Harmony.]]
However, they don't always have a very ''strong'' connection to them, thus leaving the ability to wield the Elements to those who do, and who have a strong friendship with the other five strongest wielders. After all, it'd have to be an awfully ContrivedCoincidence that all six Elements of Harmony end up living in the same exact town...
* 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 BatmanGambit to save her little sister?

[[WMG: The Friendship Is Magic's universe's {{God}} is making sure that the main six ponies stay close.]]
It's been shown that [[spoiler:Rainbow Dash pulling off a Sonic Rainboom]] caused the other five to get their cutie marks. I bet that the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' universe's God is keeping them snug and close so it has an Ace when things skew to a sour side.
* Yes, her name is Celestia.
** [[{{Stinkoman87}} This Troper's]] 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 "Fair 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 '[[GodDoesNotOwnThisWorld executive producer]]'.
* It's some unknown entity above Celestia, Luna, and even Discord.
** It's HARMONY.

[[WMG: Two or more of the elements of Harmony can be combined to create other good forces.]]
And these forces can be used to cure the world of other evils. Of course, All of them combined creates the greatest power of them all, but these lesser powers still have their uses.
For instance:
* Kindness + Generosity = Mercy/Forgiveness
* Honesty + Loyalty = Family
* Laughter + Magic = Joy
* Magic + Kindness = Abundance
* Generosity + Honesty = Guidance
* Laughter + Generosity = Playfulness
** Laughter + Honesty = [[TheRoast Roasting]]?
* That's actually brilliant. Hope we see that in future episodes...

[[WMG: What the Elements of Harmony actually DO.]]
This is something of a weird thought I had regarding the various Elements of Harmony when they're by themselves, feel free to add your own thoughts/guesses for these:
* Magic: Grants the wielder extraordinary magical aptitude, [[CaptainObvious obviously]].
* Honesty: Makes the wielder [[LivingLieDetector 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.
* 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.

I realize that I'm reaching for some of these, but these are just first draft ideas.

[[WMG: The universe uses a virtue system like {{Exalted}}.]]
Tying in to the guesses about Elements of Harmony having inherent flaws to them as well, it could also be that having an element renders you vulnerable to an {{Exalted}}-style LimitBreak. Instead of Exalted's four virtues (Compassion, Conviction, Temperance, and Valor), this universe uses six (Friendship, Honesty, Kindness, Generosity, Laughter, and Loyalty), each with their own Virtue Flaws and Limit Breaks. Naturally, a pony that embodies an element/virtue would have the most dots in it possible, leading to some truly spectacular Limit Breaks. Just for fun, let's look at what each of the Mane Six's Elements and possible Limit Breaks could be....
* Rarity - Generosity - Give Too Much: [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E14SuitedForSuccess 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: [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E4ApplebuckSeason 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: [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E25PartyOfOne 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: [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E26TheBestNightEver 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.]]
* 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: [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E15FeelingPinkieKeen 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 [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E5GriffonTheBrushOff Giffon the Brush Off]], but she kept her head. All her issues have related more to her strong personality than her element.

[[WMG: Anypony is an Element of Harmony.]]
All it requires is for the pony to have a personality that fits one of the elements. However it requires very specific circumstances to use, as the pilot showed. The point is that the mane cast is not some form of [[TheChosenOne Chosen Ponies]], the entire gang could be replaced by entirely different ponies as long as there was somepony there to represent each of the specific elements.
* 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.

[[WMG: Pony magic forms a field around each pony and has similar properties to electricity.]]
Specifically, they both are strongest on angled surface. Long pointy things are used as lightning rods, because the electric energy on any surface is the strongest wherever the sharpest angle is. The sharpest angle on a unicorn would be its horn, and because it is so close to their brain, the energy interacts with their brainwaves, allowing to control it directly. The sharpest angle on a pegasus is its wings, and because of this, the majority of their magical abilities come from their wings.
* 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 [[{{Superboy}} tactile telekinesis]]? That...would actually make sense, especially when having [[MindOverMatter the regular version]] is canonically already part of the unicorns' [[PlanetOfHats hat]].

[[WMG: Earth pony magic manifests as a sixth sense, which is related to their special talent.]]
It's been [[WordOfGod confirmed]] that earth ponies have a magical connection to the land, i.e. Sweet Apple Acres grows better when run by earth ponies. The reason for this is because all earth ponies have the innate ability to simply know how to use their talent best. For example, with her special talent being apple farming, Applejack's "earth sense" tells her precisely when her apples are ready to be harvested. It also tells her how to buck each apple tree so that the majority of the fruit falls into her baskets.
* 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 [[CloudCuckooLander Pinkie Pie]].

[[WMG: Gems in Equestria are actually a type of fungus.]]
They occur only a couple of inches below soft ground, which makes no geological sense, and there never seems to be a shortage of them despite the fact that dragons must eat huge amounts of them. Therefore, we can assume they're actually growing and regrowing regularly.

[[WMG: Sonic Rainboom is a powerful, temporal boost for a pegasus' innate magic.]]
The pagasi magic gives them some mild physics-breaking powers like walking on clouds and flight, but they are still mostly bound by it's laws. Specifically, when a pegasus is trying to fly too fast even by Equestria's loose standards, they are pushed back by reality itself.

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, [[{{Film/Superman}} 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 it's nature, Sonic Rainboom could cause any of the reality-warping effects mentioned in [=WMGs=] above.

[[WMG: Jewels and gems grow like plants in the MLP universe.]]
This explains why they're often found buried only inches underground, and why they are still so abundant even though dragons eat them. If gems didn't grow like plants, they would've disappeared a long time ago with the way dragons eat them.

[[WMG: The Hatching Dragon Test is meant to be an UnwinnableTrainingSimulation.]]
Fluttershy's initial reaction shows that baby dragons are probably extremely rare. We don't see a single baby or adolescent dragon elsewhere. My conclusion is that hatching the dragon is designed to be an impossible test for a young unicorn. To see how they will react to not having enough magical power when under extreme stress. This would be a test to judge the character of talented unicorn and help ensure Equestria doesn't have any evil wizards. Twilight's Sonic Rainboom-induced magical seizure might have been the first time in millennia that the test was successfully completed.
* Taking it further, Spike's egg was a fake, meaning Twilight hatching it was an [[AchievementsInIgnorance 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.
* Supported by WordOfGod: 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.
*** 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.

[[WMG: In addition to the above, the Hatching Dragon test was meant to reveal the suitable Element of Magic.]]
Anypony who possessed enough power to actually succeed at it would be taken by Celestia as her personal student, and on eve of the fateful day would be sent to Ponyville to make some friends…
* So it's like the test to [[AvatarTheLastAirbender determine the next Avatar?]]
* Confirmed by WordOfGod - it was only used as a test of magical power for a select few, Twilight being the first that passed it.

[[WMG: The Elements Of Harmony are incapable of killing.]]
They've been used four known times to defeat a major threat. All four times, the effects were non-lethal. First two and the last time, it merely [[SealedEvilInACan neutralized the threat by imprisoning it]], despite the fact Celestia and Luna clearly wanted to be rid of Discord once and for all. As the Elements Of Harmony representing the PowerOfFriendship, they can't be used to kill.
* That's [[FridgeBrilliance actually brilliant.]] Though they ''are'' certainly capable of scary things. Just ask [[TakenForGranite Discord.]]

[[WMG: The Elements of Harmony one thousand years ago…]]
First of all, Celestia and Luna weren't the ''only'' users of the elements, there were six, just like the mane six. But TheCorruption that made Luna into Nightmare Moon also corrupted the other 4 representatives, Celestia being the only one able to resist. Each one shared the leadership of all equestri until TheCorruption appeared. Luna was able to resist it long enough to help her sister to seal their friends. The previous generation could have been:
* Celestia = Magic: being this one the stronger of the elements, she was able to resist TheCorruption, and use the elements.
* Luna = Loyalty: her love and devotion for Celestia, made her ablo 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 MindRape. He could have [[MindRape Mind Raped]] Luna before having been sealed.
* A Dragon = Generosity: he could have been somekind of "Dragon King" and the one who made the [[EpilepticTrees 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 [[EldritchAbomination eldritch]] MamaBear 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.

[[WMG: The cloud-walking spell from "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E16SonicRainboom Sonic Rainboom]]" never wore off.]]
The flight spell was mentioned to only last for three days, but the cloud-walking spell wasn't even stated to be temporary. For all we know, Twilight Sparkle, Applejack and Pinkie Pie can still walk on clouds.
* 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.

[[WMG: The reason the ponies need to control the plants, animals and weather is because Discord is imprisoned.]]
Discord was/is the physical manifestation of Chaos... which, isn't just "everything goes wacky," it's a necessary attribute of physics. Much as superheated pure water can't turn to steam until an outside force perturbs it or introduces a tiny contamination, without Discord's presence, Equestria doesn't have enough natural chaos in it to trigger the formation of clouds, or of raindrops/snowflakes/ice crystals, or the shifting pattern of winds, or the ebb and flow of plant or animal lifecycles. But given a choice between having to crank the ecosystem over manually or having a mad god loose in it, the ponies made the obvious choice. It's also an explanation for the Everfree... it's the last natural source of Chaos left in Equestria, and so is kept as a nature preserve.

[[WMG: The Elements of Harmony are, to some extent, {{Magic Feather}}s.]]
Consider what Celestia says to Twilight at the end of "Elements of Harmony": "I knew you could do it....I saw the signs of Nightmare Moon's return, and I knew it was you who had the magic ''inside'' to defeat her, but you could not ''unleash it'' until you let true friendship into your heart [emphasis added]." In other words, the magic that defeated Nightmare Moon, and Discord as well, came from inside Twilight Sparkle. After all, there are presumably other groups of close friends among the ponies of Equestria, and presumably others who embody the virtues of honesty, loyalty, generosity, kindness, and laughter. Those are not unique traits. And if all that was needed was a close group of friends to activate the Elements, well, Twilight, as of the beginning of "Mare in the Moon", is the last pony you would send: she has no friends, and shows no sign of wanting any friends. The one thing Twilight had was incredibly powerful magic. She needed to make friends so that she could unleash that magic. Finally, consider the fact that the elements did seem to have been destroyed, only to take on new forms to suit the new bearers, and that the sixth element just appeared for Twilight: those are simply the form that the magic takes, not the substance.

[[WMG: The speed of sound in Equestria is lower than it is in our world.]]
Even beyond the existence of magic and tiny pastel ponies, the atmospheric physics of Equestria are rather weird. Clouds are smaller and form at lower altitudes than in the real world, for example. If the speed of sound were much lower - say, about 50 metres per second instead of 340 - then, while breaking the sound barrier would still be very difficult for fluid dynamics reasons, it's much more plausible. At the beginning of Sonic Rainboom, Rainbow Dash spends about twelve seconds diving at a roughly 45° angle at something close to the speed of sound, which would mean diving about four kilometres. It just doesn't feel like she's covering that much distance, if Fluttershy can still see her as anything but a tiny blue speck against the (also blue) sky. If the speed of sound were 50 metres per second, that's 180 km/h, which is the speed of a very fast modern car. I think that's still pretty impressive for a little pony with tiny wings.

[[WMG: The jewelry referred to as the Elements of Harmony are just a MagicFeather]]
Their only power is as a psychological crutch to make the actual elements easier to use for the ponies who embody them. They are, in fact, mere projections of the actual elements, which is how they reformed in the pilot. Discord never actually stole them or relocated them, he just made the magic feathers disappear, and then let them reform once he felt the situation was perfect to break Twilight.
* 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.

[[WMG: Elements of Discord/Chaos will be simple opposites of Elements of Harmony]]
Kindess vs. Malice, Generosity vs. Avarice, Loyalty vs. Betrayal, Honesty vs. Deceitfulness/Deception, Laughter vs. Despair/Gloom, and Magic/Friendship vs. Oblivion/Isolation. Alternatively, Magic will be a common element with Twilight Sparkle ending up on a precipice between them as part of an ongoing seasonal plot/undercurrent (provided another skilled magic user doesn't show up, or they don't just use Trixie).
* Also, the Element of Betrayal and the Element of Deceit will both be [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor Heel Face Revolving Doors]], and the Element of Malice will be either TheChessmaster or a MagnificentBastard.

[[WMG: Conversely, the Elements of Discord will instead be corruptions of the Elements of Harmony.]]
Loyalty being twisted into slavish devotion, Generosity being twisted into self-destructiveness, Kindness being twisted into obsession, Honesty being twisted into utter tactlessness (to the point of either revealing secrets or insulting the target), Laughter being twisted into mockery, and Magic/Friendship being twisted into darkness/toadyism.

[[WMG: The Elements of Discord will be the following...]]
There have been many WMG theories that there would be the "Elements of Discord" that would oppose the Elements of Harmony, and WordOfGod confirms that a villain named Discord would appear in season 2. My theory is that past "bad guys" of the series will be given these elements. After Discord is defeated by the Mane cast, he decides to recruit others to defeat them and counter their Elements of Harmony. The Diamond Dog(s) will be the element of Greed, since they were willing to hurt others to get their diamonds. Gilda will be the element of Betrayal, since she was so quick to abandon Rainbow Dash for shallow reasons. Trixie will be the leader, using the element of Dark Magic. Diamond Tiara will be the element of cruelty (opposite of kindness) since she lacks compassion and respect. Two other ponies will be introduced who will follow the elements of Gloom and Dishonesty. However, by the end of the second season the Mane cast will purge them of the dark magic that took ahold of them and they will [[HeelFaceTurnbecome good guys.]]
* Though not without [[TearJerker making the fans cry]]. Bonus points if the wielders of the Elements of Discord become [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds Woobies, Destroyers of Worlds]].

[[WMG: Friendship is magic… similar to how [[PuellaMagiMadokaMagica Madoka]] verse emotions are magic.]]
Cutie Mark = Soul Gem, Cutie Mark Failure Syndrome is the transformation from Soul Gem to Grief Seed, and Nightmare Moon is Luna’s witch form. The ‘outside influence’ in that instance was Kyuubi, and Twilight and co are the Madoka’s of their universe. They didn’t get rid of the system, they used Twilight’s revelation/wish that Friendship IS Magic to focused the contract entirely upon the Elements of Harmony, creating Cutie Mark Shaped Soul Gems they can draw power from/subsequently channel power into.
These ponies are saving the universe, one lesson at a time.

[[WMG: Ponies have access to electricity...]]
...but NOT to fossil fuels. Thus the existence of a hydro-electric dam and various minor electric appliances is possible, but the existence of cars and other major industries as we know them is NOT possible. This is not a case of environmentalism, mind you, but a simple matter of discovering electricity before gasoline (although environmentalist ponies are probably happier for that).
* 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.

[[WMG: The dam in The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well produces magic]]
Almost exactly like a more local version of the Lux Font of the Rac Conan Diamh(sp) in TalesOfTheQuestor, right down to the use of invisible ley lines rather than cables on poles to transmit the power.

[[WMG: Equestria's [[{{Magitek}} technological devices are actually powered by earth pony magic]].]]
That's why the locomotive in "Over a Barrel" needed a team of earth ponies to pull it, and that's why the ponies working the construction equipment in "The Mysterious Mare-do-Well" were all earth ponies. The locomotive was pulling the train, but it needed a team of earth ponies galloping before it to power the boiler.
* I always thought they were trying to conserve coal or something.

[[WMG:Cutie Pox creates cutie marks based on jobs or activities that need doing.]]
Apple Bloom probably saw all those things out of the corner of her eye and her awareness of them unconsciously channeled her Cutie Pox into filling the criteria.
* It would certainly explain why there just so happened to be a fencer in full dueling gear, a block of marble standing in the middle of town, and ''lions'' that needed taming...
* What about the hula-hooping, plate-spinning, tap-dancing, and French-speaking? None of those were jobs that needed to be done.
** Not every cutie mark pertains to a job. The hoop and the plates happened to be lying around, and tap-dancing and French-speaking were contingencies for when there aren't enough props around for tricks. Or you could chalk it up to RuleOfFunny.
* There was that tornado cutie mark though that had no purpose other than to force Apple Bloom to spin uncontrollably.
** A limited form of wind-based magic, perhaps? A tornado could be ''really'' useful in a fight.

[[WMG:The Seeds of Truth only bloom when someone confesses their lie.]]
It won't bloom simply by stating a fact. Applejack rarely lies, and at the time the Seeds were planted, she had nothing that needed confessing.
* Which raises the question: just ''how'' many corn-cakes ''did'' Pinkie eat?
** More than six.
** 40 cakes. That's as many as four tens.
*** AndThatsTerrible.
** [[Webcomic/{{homestuck}} All the corn-cakes. All of them.]]

[[WMG: Even after death, afflicted ponies continue performing the talents associated with the marks until decomposition and general wear and tear degrade the body to an absolutely unusable state.]]
* NightmareFuel
** With ''serious'' potential for BlackComedy.

[[WMG: The three pony types each have their own kind of magic, but they aren't exclusive to that pony type.]]
Earth pony magic, unicorn magic and pegasus magic all exist. Unicorn magic is what lets unicorns cast spells, earth pony magic is what lets earth ponies work with animals and plants, and pegasus magic is what lets pegasi fly and perform special effects. Usually this magic occurs most strongly in the associated pony type, but not exclusively. Rainbow Dash has plenty of pegasus magic, letting her fly really quickly and perform lots of special tricks like the Sonic Rainboom and the Atomic Rainnuke, but very little earth pony or unicorn magic. Fluttershy, on the other hand, has a moderate amount of pegasus magic, letting her fly but not terribly well, but she has quite a bit of earth pony magic too, giving her her bond with animals. Applejack has a huge supply of earth pony magic but almost no pegasus or unicorn magic, making her physically very powerful and successful at her work, but she's the only character with no real special powers. Pinkie Pie has some earth pony magic, and a certain amount of unicorn magic, which powers her Pinkie Sense (and other things, depending on how you interpret her abuses of CartoonPhysics). Without a horn, she can't actually cast spells, so her unicorn magic manifests as strange supernatural powers that aren't really under her control.

[[WMG: The heart-shaped beacon in Hearth's Warming Eve acts as a core to the Elements of Harmony]]
Much the same way the [[SonicTheHedgehog Master Emerald is the core of the Chaos Emeralds]]. The only way to permanently destroy/depower the Elements of Harmony would be to somehow extinguish its flame. This is not an easy task, since there would be a lot of friendship and harmony to destroy.

[[WMG: Friendship isn't just nice, it's ''SURVIVAL'']]
Not only has it saved Equestria twice, but being nasty, non-empathetic, or antisocial can cause everypony to be frozen into starvation or worse! The ponies brace each other up and remind each other about this regularly, and now we know why Celestia assigned her best student, Twilight Sparkle, to study it.

[[WMG: Earth Ponies can't make an agricultural surplus without Pegasi weather control.]]
Although they think they can, and the ancient Pegasi and Unicorn leaders also thought that their races could
manage to make one without Other Pony Races assistance.

[[WMG: Celestia and Luna don't move the heavens unaided.]]
Instead, they are actually channelling the powers of all the unicorns.

[[WMG: The main power source for magic-run machines are gems.]]
We've seen them used for a lot of things already (decoration, food source for dragons, presumably they have momentary value). So for gems being a [[PowerCrystal source of power]] for machines wouldn't be a huge stretch.
* 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, [[WindIsGreen Wind Emeralds]], [[PurpleIsTheNewBlack Shadow Amethysts]], and for straight-up power supplies, Lightning Topaz.

[[WMG: Unicorn Magic, Earth Pony Magic and possibly Pegasi Magic [[UnequalRites all work under different principles]].]]
As off "Family Appreciation Day", Earth Pony Magic appears to work with the principles that things need to be influenced in such a way to produce the desired results. Especially when working with a magical crop like Zap Apples. This seems to work similar to Discworld's Witch Magic. It's also been repeatedly shown that Unicorn Magic works by cause and effect, and it seems to be studied in the same way that quantum physics would be studied. This is similar to Discworld's Wizard Magic. Not really sure how Pegasi Magic might work since we haven't really seen enough of how Pegasi society is run aside from weather control and cloud walking.

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 abilties 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?

[[WMG: Many of the steps in the Zap Apple Jam ritual are unnecessary.]]
The Zap Apple Jam ritual is cargo cult science at its best. Granny Smith obviously doesn't understand ''why'' it works, only that it does. Its various steps include: (a) Steps that were never necessary, but Granny Smith wasn't willing to risk removing them, (b) Steps that were once necessary but which aren't anymore, (c) Steps which Granny Smith made up to obfuscate the process and keep her family's monopoly secure, (d) Steps which Granny Smith made up specifically to troll the youngsters of Ponyville, and (e) Steps which are actually necessary. She may not even remember which ones she made up anymore. I'm pretty sure the bit with the bunny suits is just to mess with the kids.

[[WMG: Equestria is on the verge of an Industrial Revolution]]
But they lack the motivation for it. We see that they have automation to a degree but the inferior quality of the products has yet to be overcome by the need for sheer quantity. In the real world that need was supplied by aggressive colonization, trade with ignorant native populations and periodic wars. We have yet to see any other nations besides Equestria and it seems like war is a thing of the distant past. Although it appears that at least two frontier towns have been founded in the last century and trade with the buffalo or zebras may provide some incentive for industry within the next generation or so.
* Well, they do have video games as of "Hearts and Hooves Day"

[[WMG: The solar system in which Equestria exists is heliocentric/Celestia and Luna actually don't move the sun/moon, but rotate the Earth on it's axis.]]
In the intro for the show ([[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rynj4WuXxYA&t=0m26s here]]), there is a glass window on the right of Celestia that seems to depict an Earth-like planet in a heliocentric orbit — although we cannot see the orbit of the Earth-like planet, the small, ringed planet in the upper left corner does seem to depict its orbit around a sun (whose existence is implied by the rays in the image), so we can safely assume that the Earth-like planet is also orbiting around that sun. Assuming that the Earth-like planet is a portrayal of whatever planet on which Equestria exists, this strongly suggests that the Equestrian solar system is in fact heliocentric.
* 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).
* Begs 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...)

[[WMG: The Elements of Harmony are simply Equestria's weapon of last resort against supernatural threats. Despite their fancy name, they actually ''have'' no other powers.]]
Consider: We never actually see or hear of them being put to non-combat use. Between the fights against Nightmare Moon and Discord in the show, Princess Celestia clearly just kept them in a box in her palace. And before the start of the series, they've apparently been sitting undisturbed in those old ruins for quite some time. Even assuming for argument's sake that Celestia lost the ability to use them herself right after banishing her sister to the moon, she could have readily assembled a group of trustworthy, qualified ponies to do it ''for'' her far earlier. So why didn't she...unless, of course, there's no real ''use'' for the Elements in times of peace?
* Maybe only a certain few ponies have the power to use them, like benders in AvatarTheLastAirbender?
** 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
* Maybe the elements CastFromTheHitPoints

[[WMG: The most powerful forms of magic in Equestria manifest rainbow light.]]
The Elements of Harmony, the Sonic Rainboom, The Zap Apples... not to mention the use of rainbow in a powerful LovePotion. To ponies, a rainbow kaleidoscope of color could symbolize pure harmonious power: since each pony has their own color pallete, and unicorn magic is color-coded, a rainbow could combine the strengths of all ponies.

[[WMG: Equestrian apples undergo fermentation while still ripening on the tree.]]
This not only settles the whole alcoholic vs. non-alcoholic cider question, it also explains why the Apple family's apples and related products are so popular all over Equestria. Just as appears to be the case in real life, ponies are as a rule less ''affected'' by alcohol than humans...but they're still quite capable of ''enjoying'' it.

[[WMG: Using magic burns calories.]]
This is probably how all the ponies are capable of eating such huge amounts of sweets and sugary treats without significant weight gain.

[[WMG: Everypony and their mother has a connection to an incredible magic power]]
The Elements of Harmony are just the most understood ones
* During [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E26ACanterlotWeddingPart2 the royal wedding]] Cadence and Shining Armor defeated the Changelings through ThePowerOfLove
** And the CMC will wield [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E13HearthsWarmingEve the Fire Of Friendship]]

[[WMG: Equestria’s most powerful races and the Elements of Disharmony.]]
->'''Alicorns:''' Betrayal.\\
'''Dragons:''' Cupidity.\\
'''Draconequi: ''' Mockery.\\
'''Windigos:''' Malice.\\
'''Changelings:''' Deception.\\
'''????????:''' ????????.
They must be saving the best (or, you know, worst) for last.

[[WMG:The Elements of Harmony are more effective when used by larger groups.]]
[[GrandFinale At some point]], the entire population of Ponyville, or even Equestria, will have to use the Elements together.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Dragons]]
[[WMG: [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Dragons]] hoard treasure not because of greed, but to use as a food supply.]]
This is implied by Spike's desire to eat gemstones.
* Perhaps dragons must ingest gemstones in order to fuel their fire.
* Or to mimic the dragon from Literature/{{Beowulf}}.
** The dragon in "Dragonshy" seems to use his mostly as a bed
** However, the dragon on "Owl's Well That Ends Well" seems to confirm this
*** I think they do so as a mating display. Older dragons don't really consume gems but like to display them for potential mates because a large hoard can be used to feed many offspring (or given dragon longevity, feed an offspring for a long time). That's why older dragons hoard gems while Spike tries to eat them every chance he gets when not trying to impress Rarity. In fact, Spike helping Rarity with the gem accumulation might be a subconscious mating display.

[[WMG: Dragon birth and development.]]
As of ''Owls...'', we see that dragons are an infanticidal and cannibalistic species. Also, Spike is consistently referred to as a baby dragon, yet is at the same level of comprehension and cognitive development as the rest of the residents of Equestria. I suppose that, like other reptiles, dragons are able to take care of themselves nearly from birth, and they are in a constant danger of being eaten by their bigger relatives. Princess Celestia realized this and how intelligent dragons are, and so created a mutually symbiotic relationship between her students (to give them an assistant and teach them leadership skills) and baby dragons (who learn from their pony and get protection from their larger kin) to make everyone happy. Not sure what happens when Spike grows up, though. Maybe Celestia is pulling a Baron Wulfenbach, making it so the next generation of dragons is fully of friendly allies to the ponies?

[[WMG: Dragons are a dying species.]]
Fluttershy mentions that she's never seen a baby dragon before and didn't even know that Dragons could ''talk.'' Clearly they are a rare and mysterious breed that are extremely uncommon. Also as evidenced by Spike young dragons are very small and vulnerable creatures that can often fall prey to larger predators including ''other dragons.'' It also seems that dragon's eggs are rare themselves, since they live so long dragons rarely breed. This is why many dragons choose to donate their eggs to Celestia and her students in order to ensure that their young reach adulthood and ensure that dragons survive and to train them to possible weed out some of the behaviors and instincts that led to them almost dying out in the first place.
* Probably Jossed in ''Dragon Quest''. The dragon migration had numbers probably ranging in the ''millions''. However, [[FirdgeHorror this may only apply to flying dragons]].....
** Millions is a bit of an exaggeration, there were at least hundreds of them, but there is no way to tell if that was the world population, or a fraction of it.

[[WMG: Equestrian dragons function more like intelligent animals than sentient beings. However, due to being raised by the ponies of Canterlot, Spike has developed super-intelligence.]]
In the show, we've only seen three dragons, Spike, one in "Dragonshy", and one in "Owls Well That Ends Well". Spike, who is supposed to be a child, appears much more intelligent than the second one, who said at most four words and communicated with grunts and roars the rest of time. The third didn't even say that much. This would explain why Fluttershy [[CutenessProximity reacted the way she did]] when she first met Spike, and why she didn't know that he could talk. Because, young dragons normally can't.
* Or perhaps it's because Twilight temporarily aged him up into an adult when her power went out of control?
* It's also possible that dragons simply have a language all their own. The dragon in "Dragonshy" certainly seemed intelligent enough and displays a myriad of different complex attitudes and expressions that suggest intelligence (including sarcastic skepticism) and even tries to rationalize his actions (albeit somewhat poorly). He started communicated in the pony's tongue because he was forced to. If anything, dragons seem to be slightly ''more'' intelligent than ponies (the number of learned skills Spike alone possesses is ridiculous, and he's just a baby) as none of the ponies seem to be able to communicate with any other creature in their own tongue.
* "Secret of My Excess" gives us a nice bit of background into how dragons work in Equestria. The greedier (and more mature) Spike got, the more animalistic he became. As a baby, he spoke normally, as an adolescent, he resorted to HulkSpeak, and as an adult, he just roared. The implication seems to be that while dragons have the potential to function and speak on pony levels, it becomes harder and harder to do so as they mature, which might be why the dragon from "Dragonshy" spoke in a rather forced, childish manner.

[[WMG: Dragons have 3 subspiecies/races mirroring ponies.]]
They maybe have similar abilities what ponies have (plus dragons powers). Also not counting other dragonlike creatures. So we have:
* Wingless Dragons - Spike's race, maybe have some connection with ground, animals and plants.
** "Animals" like ponies, perhaps?
*** Make sense, this propably reason why Unicorns hatch wingless dragon eggs and (maybe) keeping them as Familiars (if Spike is not only one)
**** Or possibly the Wingless Dragons have some sort of pact or agreement the ponies, supplying them with some of their eggs so the ponies can raise the dragons to defend them from some of the larger, nastier creatures out there. I can't imagine just what the dragons get out of this arrangement though.
** Spike is great example, he like being with ponies, he feels natural with them, he even have crush on one pony, also he is good with animals (he takes care of Flutershy pets in Dragonshy), and he treat Bloomberk as character just like AJ.
*** "Good" with animals? When he see him at the end of the episode, he's at his wit's end, particularly with Angel.
* Winged Dragons - like Red and Green ones, probably can walk on clouds and control weather.
* Horned Dragons - unseen, with some magical powers (maybe like Dragons from D&D).
Also as a bonus (if we asume that Sea Ponies are part of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' setting)
* Water Dragons - Steven Magnet kind, they don't need to have hair.
** Alternatively, Water Dragons ARE the Dragon equivalent to Unicorn Ponies. Steven at least certainty is ''magical''...

[[WMG: Dragons are immortal.]]
As in they are incapable of dying of old age (a "nap" for them can last for a hundred years!) or disease but they can be killed by external forces (although this is very difficult). Celestia will eventually age and die herself as despite her power she is still mortal (albeit long-lived). Spike is being groomed to be Equestria's eternal guardian and defender as he will far outlive anyone else in the series.

[[WMG: Spike's fire transfer ability is a racial skill/ability of dragons.]]
Let's look at what we know about the dragons in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''.
* They tend to have hoards, many times what they could logically carry.
** The dragon from "Dragonshy" per example, had a hoard large enough to comfortably use as a bed.
** Similarly, the dragon in "Owl's Well That Ends Well" has an entire cave full of gemstones.
* They occasionally move to new places.
** The dragon from "Dragonshy" was mentioned as having recently moved to the mountain near ponyville. Additionally, the end of the episode clearly states he went to find a new place to hold his nap.
* Dragons are at the very least capable of some inherent magic
** More specifically, their relatively small wingspan implies they use some other means of propulsion for flight.
** Also, the fire itself.
*** For one thing, they would have to eat tons and tons of high-calorie food, just for a single blast of fire.
*** Second, Spike's green fire suggests that maybe, the fire is not the result of a chemical reaction.
* Dragons are EXTREMELY protective of their hoards.
** "Dragonshy's" dragon per example, responded to Rarity's suggestion to let her take it from him by practically kicking her out of his cave.
** "Owl's" dragon responded to Spike eating a few gems (and, admittedly, his challenge) by making what appeared to be a very serious attempt at killing Spike.

Add to this that Spike has also shown the capability of sending (small) objects by fire (ending of "Griffon the Brush-Off"), and a logical conclusion would be that dragons use their fire in nature for two things (other than combat/self defence/fun):
* Quickly sending new additions to their existing hoard.
* Moving their hoard without having to carry it.

In turn, this could possibly mean that Spike somehow sees Princess Celestia as his hoard (awkward), but also that somehow the Princess reverse-engineered his natural abilities to use him as a sentinent, living fax-device.

[[WMG: "Dragon" is a broad term for several different species with very different form and temperament.]]
It doesn't take much effort to notice Spike is not very similar to the other two dragons the cast has encountered so far; his fire is green, and appears to be more on the harmless/magical side compared to the mundane but much more dangerous fire the other two possess. Additionally, he's flightless, and his grown shape is very different. However, the red dragon and green dragon, while appearing to be simple pallet swaps of the same species were also different kinds of dragon. The red one was a mountain dragon, intelligent but also a fairly lazy form of TrueNeutral; he just wanted a place to sleep for a long time, and preferred to deal with polite attempts to get him to leave by ignoring the ponies or displaying a token threat to get them out of his cave. When Dash kicked him in the face, he got angry, but even then he just roared and blew smoke in hopes the ponies would leave, and backed down when Fluttershy scolded him; it's possible it was a fairly young dragon. The green dragon, however, was a forest dragon, a more territorial and violent breed due to the general scarcity of gemstones in heavily wooded areas like the Everfree Forest. The extremely DisproportionateRetribution the green dragon presented to Spike's ineffectual challenge was simply the green dragon treating him as it would a challenger from its own species, while Spike attempting the same thing with the red dragon would have likely just resulted in the red dragon ignoring him or simply attempting to scare him off.

[[WMG:The giant lamprey eels in the gorge are actually a species of dragon.]]
Eels are see creatures, yet the gorge where Rainbow Dash's pet race takes place is nowhere near any body of water. They are gigantic, and look enough like dragons to guess. I suppose the ponies call them eels because that's what they also resemble- it is common knowledge in Equestria that they are only eels in name, much like a panda is sometimes called a "bear".
* ...Pandas have been genetically proven to be bears. Anyway, those "Eels" are known as "Quarry Eels", but the theory that they could really be dragons is still valid.
* The Quarray Eels could really be anything, not just dragons. They could be sea serpents adapted to life on land, mere land-dwelling eels, the heads of a single monster…

[[WMG: Spike is an Eastern dragon.]]
* He is shown to be different from the other dragons in the series not just in appearance, but in other attributes as well. He seems to be more "magical", and in "Party of One" we can see him floating. He's short and stocky because he's a baby, but as he gets older he'll get longer and thinner, more strongly resembling the Eastern dragons we commonly see.
** I don't know if this would make the guess Jossed, but in "Secret of my Excess", Spike's huge adult form is more or less a puffy, wingless variety of the usual dragon.

[[WMG: There are millions of different things that could affect a dragon's maturation, not just greed.]]
In Season 1, we saw 2 dragons that were not only highly typical, but almost exactly alike, save for color (one red, one green) and the presence of retractable claws (in the green one). However, Spike has had no less than 3 different visions of his adult self: the fat, lizard-like beast he's turned into in "The Cutie Mark Chronicles", the very manly ImagineSpot in "A Dog and Pony Show", and most recently, in "Secret of my Excess", a wingless and more puffy version of the typical beastie. All of these could be valid adult forms dragons can take, and there are simply a huge variety of factors that can trigger dragon-puberty.
* Spike actually assumes the form from "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" for a moment during "Secret of My Excess." It happens when he destroys Sugarcube Corner.

[[WMG: Dragons ''used'' to be a society before Discord or Celestia's reign.]]
It's generally taken for granted that rule of Equestria began with Discord's reign of terror or an Alicorn monarch that was dethroned, but eons ago, before Discord first appeared, the land was instead ruled by dragons, with Ponies and other races living under Dragon protection in relative peace. This came to an end when Discord finally appeared to establish his rule of Equestria, destroying Dragon society by inflaming the young dragons' greed and turning them feral. The species tore itself apart for Discord's amusement, leaving only solitary, wild dragons in the place of the land's protectors. Once he had destroyed one culture forever, Discord declared himself king and tormented the ponies until Luna and Celestia overthrew him. The dragon-hatching ritual unicorn students undertake is a part of a hope by Celestia that maybe one day the ponies can discover a way to undo Discord's curse and allow the dragons to escape extinction.

[[WMG: Spike's fantasy in ''A Dog And A Pony Show'' was not purely his imagination.]]
A dragon whelp who is not allowed to practice greed and consequently is kept from having his abnormal growth [[JustForThePun spike]] can eventually slowly grow into a Dragon Knight, a creature with less physical power and longevity than a true dragon, but more intelligent and adapted to life in society. Those cases are very rare, though.
A Dragon Knight is always fantastically brave, generous and devoted to the protection of the ones he loves and cares for - qualities that are absolutely necessary to transcend the feral dragon instincts and to become a Dragon Knight in the first place.

[[WMG: Dragon life cycle theories.]]
It's likely that dragon mothers lay only one egg at a time, since dragons don't appear to be common in Equestria - if they were, they would have overrun the land. Alternatively, most of the dragons spawned are killed in battles over hoards, with only the strongest surviving.
While a dragon whelp displays at least the same potential for intelligence as any pony, when raised by a dragon, they will only be as intelligent as the dragon raising them for obvious reasons.

When a dragon whelp becomes of age, he experiences a greed and growth surge (as depicted in ''Secret To My Excess'') which leads him to fight his mother (and siblings if available) for the hoard and the lair. The losers are either killed or flee the battle to try and find a new lair. Possibly the dragon shown in ''Dragonshy'' was uprooted like this. The hoard in the cave may not have been originally its own - perhaps it was left there from the death of the previous owner.

Only in absence of gold and jewelry nearby will a whelp start collecting anything else it can put its claws on.
A dragon's greed surge eventually resides to manageable levels. Only after this does the dragon truly mature, gaining wings and regaining a certain level of sentience. For the rest of their life, their main activity will be protecting their hoard. It is possible that from that point on a dragon's intelligence increases all throughout its life, therefore extremely ancient dragons may become as intelligent as ponies, if not more.

[[WMG: Adult dragons chase off infant dragons as soon as they can begin hoarding.]]
This prevents the adult from having to fight the child, and helps with species distribution and propagation. It also means that the green dragon wasn't being a jerk; that's just as civil as any interaction between a mature and a semi-mature dragon gets.

[[WMG: Dragons propagate in the same way cuckoos do.]]
Dragons appear to be, by and large, solitary creatures. Despite being intelligent enough to speak and understand various concepts, their violent and greedy natures mostly leave them unable to form relationships, or a real civilization, between their own kind. Even the acts of courting and mating might be difficult, and they don't raise their own offspring. Once a female has mated with a male, she goes somewhere far away from other dragons and leaves her eggs in various places, never to be seen by the mother again. If the dragon egg is lucky enough, it might be discovered by another creature and is adopted. Unfortunately, their tendency for violence and greed is genetic and the young dragon eventually takes over the area and causes much havoc for the other inhabitants without the proper intervention.

[[WMG: Dragons hide eggs that are close to hatching near places with lots of stuff to hoard.]]
After hatching in a safe place, the baby dragon starts collecting things, which spurs growth, with helps with collecting, and without anyone to stop the process, this allows the dragon to reach physical maturity in a matter of days. The baby dragon is small enough to get started without anyone noticing it, and by the time people realize it's there, it is large enough that they can't stop it.

[[WMG: Dragons usually reach physical maturity before mental/emotional maturity.]]
Given the events of Secret of My Excess, this is almost certainly true, but putting it in words anyway. Dragons can reach physical maturity almost instantly once they start hoarding, and that fast growth is a very useful survival trait, which implies that most dragons make use of it.

Continuing that line of thought, Spike's pony upbringing has actually stunted his growth. On the upside, he's unusually well-educated and socialized by dragon standards.
* It could make sense. Humans stay in baby/child phase for much longer than other species. While it does leave young humans more vulnerable, babies and children can learn new things a lot faster. By staying as children longer, they have more time to learn new things. With most animal species, the young learn new things a lot better, so it's completely plausible that Spike will learn more than most dragons can because he stays in a younger state longer.

[[WMG: Spike's dragon species is native to Zecora's homeland.]]
It would explain why we haven't seen another dragon like him, and why Zecora is the ONLY one who knew a thing about what was happening to him in "The Secret of My Excess". Granted, Zecora knows a lot of things that other ponies don't know, but she did know a lot about Spike's species and we haven't even seen a dragon like Spike in the Everfree Forest.

[[WMG: Spike's species is native to the desert from "Over a Barrel".]]
It was mentioned that the buffalo herd had respect for dragons, and even did a lot to make Spike comfortable. It's possible his species is native to that area, and perhaps even have spiritual significance to the buffalo tribe.

[[WMG: The influence of greed doesn't always result in an adult dragon being a mindless brute.]]
Because we've seen several adult dragons, with hoards, that spoke coherently (an ability Giant!Spike loses) and could be reasoned with (it took the reminder of a big gesture to Rarity to bring 'Spike-wikey' back). The one in Dragonshy was protective of his hoard (understandably, Rarity ''was'' trying to nick stuff), but backed down once he was scared/talked into leaving, and the one in "Owl's Well That Ends Well" just showed that dragons don't like baby dragons in their lairs eating their hoard/food. Which again is reasonable, even if trying to kill Spike wasn't.

Zecora's explanation seems to suggest that Giant!Spike results in the way he does because he is able to hoard as much as he pleases without being held back. Were Spike able to gather a hoard with some limitations (''Rarity'' knows what's worth keeping, and they kind-of share a love of gems) we may see a different result. If this episode did show dragon puberty - on a warped, quick scale - then Twilight can't keep Spike a baby forever. They're going to have to find some way of managing it while he's living among ponies in a place with a lot to get his attention.

The ponies didn't know how Spike would react to being given so much, so quickly, or that he would come to the conclusion he could just ''take''. If they'd known -- and Twilight ''should'' have been made aware her adopted son was such a risk -- they would have reacted differently and Spike may not have had this destructive growth-spurt. On the other hoof, if Ponyville had known they needed to treat their little dragon differently for fear of him turning into an uncontrollable monster…the poor little guy may not have been able to stay in the first place. (Also, Celestia, you ''had'' to have known about this? Why didn't you tell Twilight?).
* Spike wasn't really mindless, he just wasn't interested in talking. He was clearly capable of understanding everypony that talked to them, and actually used a fairly clever trick to disable the Wonderbolts instead of just trying his fire breath. Spike was actually talked down without being stared into submission first, even if it took Rarity to do it. And while we haven't seen how other dragons act when they're not guarding their hordes, the reactions of Fluttershy and Rarity imply that Spike was acting as expected.

[[WMG: All Dragons are [[OneGenderRace Male]]]]
Well, [[NoBiologicalSex technically they have no gender]], but appear masculine. They reproduce asexually by spitting out eggs like Nameks in DragonBall.
* That, or female look and sound VERY much like guys and come mating season [[{{Discworld}} they have to check if they have the correct biological partner]].

[[WMG: Dragons also have a monarchy or hierocracy like Ponies]]
[[AllThereInTheScript Garble]] called Princess Celestia a namby pamby pony princess because Dragons have a strong ruler that is rarely seen unless you are causing serious crap to happen or are just very honored. His wrath is immense and most species fear him and or her. Possibly if one is introduced on the show he would be voiced by JohnHurt [[RuleOfCool for extra coolness.]]

[[WMG: Dragons have two separate "lifecycles" they can go down.]]
In the first one, which 99.9% of dragons go through, they accumulate a large hoard and magically grow faster and faster. In nature this is encouraged by adults, but limited by lack of loot to hoard of their own. The larger their hoard gets the more they mature, and after a certain amount of time that maturity becomes permanent. When Spike gets a whole bunch of loot in "Secret of My Excess," he artificially accelerates the process. Along this path dragons lose a part of their intelligence, but Spike took it even further. You can see this in action with many stupid adolescents and very stupid adults. Spike seems to be the most intelligent dragon we know.

Along the other path, we get Eastern dragons. They take even longer to grow up(thousand years, anyone?) and never gather a hoard. They instead learn wisdom and knowledge taking the long way around, and when they finally reach maturity are some of the smartest and wisest being in Equestria. Spike is on the first steps of this road, having been raised by ponies and now rejected dragon society. One possible "smart" dragon is Discord. He is not actually what everyone thinks he is, but an ancient dragon driven insane by the tide of years, until he broke under his chaotic duties and tried to take over. His appearance ''does'' resemble many Eastern dragon traditions, albeit all at once.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Other Species]]
[[WMG: The Cockatrice from "The Stare Master" was originally from Fluttershy's place.]]
Since she keeps chickens and an assortment of other animals, it wouldn't be a huge streach if she had a rooster, that managed to lay an egg, which then happened to be incubated by a toad. The cockatrice was hatched from the egg and then left to live in the Everfree Forest.
* I think it would be a pretty big stretch for one of her roosters to have laid an egg.
** No offense, but doesn't a chicken egg hatched beneath a toad make a [[HarryPotter basilisk?]]
*** No offense taken, but roosters are male. They don't lay eggs.
**** That's the whole point. A rooster laying an egg would be EXTREMELY rare. Otherwise, cockatrice would be more common.
** Not really. A basilisk is born from a snake or toad egg hatched beneath a rooster. The reverse of a cockatrice basically.

[[WMG: Griffons and Ponies crossbreed, all Pegasus Ponies are descended from Griffons.]]
In Mythology, a griffon and a mare can breed to make a Hippogriff. It's not a far stretch to assume it's also possible in this universe, too. Some of the pegasus ponies seen so far have sharper features, longer wings, more pointed ears and almost beak-like mouths. (Case in point: The jock ponies from Sonic Rainboom.) I think this means they have griffon/hippogriff ancestry. Now, following this line of logic, it's possible that all pegasus ponies are descended from intermarrying of griffons and ponies.

[[WMG: The Ponies raise pigs to feed their carnivorous pets with.]]
The Ponies have been shown to own dogs, cats, and even aligators, and they must eat something. It's just strange to imagine a butcher pony.
* It's why Fluttershy is so timid.
* Fluttershy did feed fish to Ferrets.
* According to WordOfGod, ponies ''really'' like truffles, enough to provide free room & board. Cows aren't so lucky.
** Wait, aren't truffles just fungi?
** The cows are there because the ponies use milk.
** Presumably the same thing can be said for the chickens, although that raises the question of weither ponies can consume eggs. They must use them in baking.
*** In one episode, Pinkie gives Spike a quiche. Quiches need eggs, so yes, ponies eat eggs.
*** Presumably they also raise chickens for feathers, since we see that they have pillows.
** And now it's been confirmed that ponies definitely eat eggs.

[[WMG:Zebras also come in unicorn and pegasus forms, as well as multiple colours.]]
Zecora is simply a black-and-white earth zebra. If ponies can come in all sorts of colours, there's no reason zebras can't, so in Zecora's home country, there would be zebras with blue and pink stripes, yellow and green stripes, and every colour stripe you can make in flash. Also, some zebras have horns, and others have wings.
* While the Ponies of Equestria earn their cutie marks, the Zebra foals earn their stripes!

There is actually some circumstantial evidence for this in the show itself. Zecora has a cutie mark, indicating that zebras have some facets in common with ponies. She also has quite an affinity for plants, which is generally an earth pony thing; this suggests she's an earth zebra.
* This troper always assumed this; showing a winged zebra would be weird without seeing any Earth first, anyway. Zecora is simply a non-european/american(??) pony.

* There is an African equivalent to the unicorn, the abada, so they may appear. I don't know about winged African horses though.

[[WMG: Horses and ponies are different species.]]
Everypony, including adults, are called ponies (young ponies are "little ponies"). Mules (Horse/donkey) are shown and mentioned, and Rarity acts as though they are all ugly or bad in some way. The "Yah, mule!" reference suggests mules do mostly manual labor. Unless Rarity and others are racist against biracial ponies, then horses must be different than ponies. This is backed up by the fact that IRL ponies don't talk or use tools.
* Are you under the impression that "pony" is a synonym for "foal" rather than a class of short horse breeds?
** Aside from the fact that the terms ''aren't'' synonymous, the transformed mouse-horses on the Season 1 finale didn't seem to be entirely sapient. Then again, they were still behaving more-or-less like mice.

[[WMG: There ARE humans in Equestria, but...]]
They are cavemen proto-humans. They aren't smart enough to utilize the tools around them, They also have a natural fear instinct of anything they do not understand and live in the "wastelands" where nopony goes anyway.
* Alternatively, humans are at a similarly advanced as ponykind, but the two species keep separate due to mutual racial tension. (Perhaps they've waged war on each other in the past, and the [[AnachronismStew odd mixtures of technology]] [[MagiTek and fairy-tale magic]] are inevitable cultural osmosis?)

[[WMG: Humans and ponies both coexist on Earth in the future.]]
After ponies became an intelligent species due to science, they were kept for scientific experiments for a while, and some were used as unpaid servants. After the Supreme Court ruled that ponies were free American citizens, they lived that way for a while, but many were not happy. Thus, some land was purchased and was offered to the ponies as a place to live free of human society. Some ponies accepted, and Equestria was born. It still contains some elements of the world that spawned it, as the ponies learned everything about civilization from humans. They replicated various great cities and structures, such as the Statue of Liberty, but with a pony theme of course. The ponies also do some trade with the outside world, but not much. For example, in Episode 15, Twilight is clearly using present-day equipment to run tests on Pinkie Pie, but most technology can be replaced by magic, which the ponies were created with, and still maintain the ability to use. As new intelligent species are created (like the smart buffalo, dragons, or smart zebras), some move to Equestria, which can lead to a lot of tension before they are accepted into society. The Everfree Forest is simply a boundary that was planted to separate the rest of the world from Equestria, and part of the original deal was that they weren't allowed to manipulate it, or any area past it, with magic. All ponies are still aware of humans, but most don't know just how dominant they are, assuming they are just another of the intelligent races, which explains why humans haven't been mentioned.
There, we have a reasonable, but non-scary, origin story.

[[WMG: Parasprites were created to end predation.]]
They're a nonsentient or minimally sentient food source for carnivores. Take a pound of vegetables, set a parasprite on it, wait a few minutes, and you have a pound of meat with practically zero waste... [[GoneHorriblyWrong that was the idea, anyway.]]

[[WMG: Parasprites hibernate.]]
If they didn't, the first outbreak ever would've been the last; they'd have stripped the continent and starved or been wiped out trying. The one that came to Fluttershy may have lain buried for hundreds or thousands of years; it may have been a lone survivor, or it may have been an early riser from a still-sleeping swarm.
* It's been mentioned that Parasprites may be native to the Everfree forest, where they're the prey to just about everything in there. The Ursa Major alone could probably eat several hundred thousand in one night (that is, if they ate Parasprites). And so began a bizarre cycle: everything eats Parasprites, so they became [[ExplosiveBreeder explosive breeders]] to adapt.

[[WMG: Parasprites spell doom, but not (just) for the obvious reasons.]]
Outside Celestia's protection, creatures do what they have to to protect themselves. Dragons depend on the food chain like anyone, so when something threatens it, [[KillItWithFire they don't take chances.]]

[[WMG: A Draconequus is the result of a pony and a dragon loving each other very much.]]
When Discord's species is mentioned, one of the first things said about him is that he has the head of a pony and the body of a dragon. Perhaps his parents were a dragon and a pony?
* Oh God Spike/Rarity's children!
** Discord ''is'' the son of Spike & Rarity....from the future, who traveled to the ancient past and was imprisoned for his mischief.
*** Why does this make so much sense?
*** No it doesn't. It makes absolutely no sense. Which is why it's perfect for Discord.
**** Makes perfect sense if he was raised by PINKIE PIE!!!! but never really learned any morals from her.
*** {{Mind Screw}}!

[[WMG: Discord is the draconequus equivalent of Celestia and Luna.]]
The Princess' are a combination of traits of all three types of ponies, and are extremely powerful compared to any one of them as a result. Discord is a combination of all types of ponies, as well as all types of dragons, making him correspondingly more powerful. At some point in time, we'll see a non-evil draconequus with normal levels of power.

[[WMG: The Poison Joke in ''Bridle Gossip'' came from Discord.]]
They were one of his past crimes. After he was put in his stone prison, the Canterlot citizens got rid of the Poison Joke, except in places where ponies are not found. Like the Everfree Forest!

[[WMG: ''The Everfree Forest'' came from Discord.]]
When Discord was defeated by Celestia and Luna, he left a parting gift: a seed/curse/his other tooth. It did nothing at first, but when the time was right, this gift exploded into a mass of plant matter. The sisters' magic, the Royal Guards, and even the pony folk could do nothing to stop it, and things only got worse when terrifying monsters came with the greenery. Eventually, the grand metropolis of Everfree was abandoned, and left to its own devices, grew into the massive shrine to pony-free chaos that is the Everfree Forest.

[[WMG: Every sentient race follows the same Earth-Air-Magic dynamic as Equestria.]]
It's been suggested elsewhere on this page that dragons come in different varieties (with Spike being a different breed from the ones we've seen), and it's been posited that "zebra" forms of unicorns and pegasi also exist. This could extend to all the races we've seen, from griffons to bovines to even the Diamond Dogs. It could go something like this. (Warning: FanWank ahoy)...

* Ponies (technicolor): Earth Ponies, Unicorns, Pegasi
* Ponies (African): Zebras, Abada, Pegasi Aithiopes
* Ponies (Asian?): Mongolian wild horses, Qilin, Tulpar
* Griffons: Hieracosphinx, Keythong (yes, the name is real), Standard griffon
* Dragons: Earth Dragons, Magic Dragons (Spike's breed?), "Standard" dragons
Alternate Concepts
* Dogs: Diamond Dogs (Earth), Scurvy Dogs (water), Foo Dogs/Blink Dogs (magic), Black Dogs (air), Hellhounds (fire, may need a rename), Cerberus (Alicorn)

Feel free to add more for the varieties of other creatures, or suggest different line-ups.
* I'd say dragons likely include Water instead of Earth. Steven Magnet, the Sea Serpent is a dragon in this lineup (though Fluttershy doesn't know that Sea Serpents are a dragon subspecies), and we have Water-Magic-Air.
* Sea serpents might constitute their own group. So far, we've seen the Hydra and Steven Magnet. They might count as the "Earth" and "Magic" varieties, respectively (Steven is pretty ''magical''). Now all we need is a flying sea-serpent…
** Steven's pretty clearly an Asian-style dragon. Notice how much his emo-fest was stirring up the river? That's actually rather typical.
* Seeing Spike's adult form in "Secret of My Excess," it is confirmed that Spike will not grow any wings like the other dragons shown so far.
* I'd call the dogs of the air Canes Majores, after the Ursa Major.
* There are hippocampi out there, along with the kin of Sleipnir. Count on it.

[[WMG: Magic causes creatures to become an AmazingTechnicolorPopulation.]]
A wide array of creatures that explicitly make use of magic and/or some supernatural power (ponies, dragons, etc.) have been shown to come in wildly different colors. Meanwhile, creatures that come in "mundane" colors, such as Zecora, are shown to use little to no magic (Zecora gets her "magic" by using various magical plants). Even the Poison Joke, a practically-magical poisonous plant, is pretty vibrant for what is essentially an exotic ivy.

[[WMG:Music has no effect on parasprites.]]
Possible explanations for what happened:
* (1) Pinkie was in amoral-trickster-goddess mode and concealing her powers in the most needlessly elaborate way possible.
* (2) They were a {{magic feather}} that she didn't know she didn't need.
* (3) Music helps her focus her powers. Usually just singing as she works is enough, but a mass mind control spell needs something more.

[[WMG: For an animal, to become a pet is the greatest honor one can be bestowed.]]
Despite being taken care of by the ponies, wild animals still live without names, without homes, and often, without real respect from the [[CivilizedAnimal ponies]]. To be a pet, however, is to get all of that and more. You recieve a name, which ponies use to distinguish you from every other often-identical member of your species; you recieve a comfortable home; and best of all, you get a pony who respects you, not as an animal, but as a friend. That's why Rainbow Dash's test was such a big deal for those animals, especially the tortoise: it's a chance to be somebody for somepony, not just another face in the forest.

[[WMG: Hippogriffs and other pony/hybrid species exist in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' universe.]]
* Since we know that mules, a horse-donkey hybrid, exist in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' universe, it's not too much of a stretch to assume that other hybrid species exist. Griffins also exist, which could imply the possibility of InterspeciesRomance between two non-pony species. In RealLife, there are zebra-horse hybrids, and since zebras exist in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' universe it's also no stretch that they could breed with ponies.
** Or that mules in Equestria aren't bred like mules in our world.

[[WMG: Zebras come in other colors in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' universe.]]
* Past MyLittlePony franchises feature zebras that come in bright colors just like the ponies. Since Zecora is the only zebra we've seen in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' so far, there's no reason to believe that there are no brightly colored zebras.

[[WMG: Every sentient species have their own PhysicalGod.]]
Considering that Princess Celestia and Luna are the only Alicorns in series so far, there may be other god-like rulers for each sentient species.
* Of course, there comes the question of what those would be. Is there an Eastern dragon watching over Spike's ilk? Do the Diamond Dogs answer to the great and mighty Snoop Dog?
** I laughed at the Snoop Dog part, perhaps he can voice the Diamond Dogs' leader. The buffalo's PhysicalGod could be a white buffalo, considering to be sacred among the plains Indians.

[[WMG: Griffons and ponies are locked in FantasticRacism, with an angry peace at best and war at worst.]]
It's a common fandom idea that, if griffons have a civilization, it's against the ponies, and griffon wars tend to factor in the general pony-past, or even the pony-present, in fanworks. It certainly has precedence; in mythology, griffons ate horses, and animosity toward a pony culture would be the closest thing.
* I'm skeptical about this, at least the modern antagonism between the two cultures, seeing as how Gilda was able to walk around unmolested and her treatment of Ponyville seemed more about how it was a small boring town (she came during a slow week), and she was allowed to attend Junior Speedsters Flight Camp (or Rainbow Dash was... its location isn't quite made clear). I'd say they have a neutral stance in modern times, but they are kept apart because the two cultures freak each other out (which is why Griffons are unrecognized by Pinkie and considered rare by Rarity). Griffons are likely carnivores, but have the same cultural opposition to eating sentient creatures as we would, and pretty much every animal in Equestria qualifies. Meanwhile, because Equestrians are fairly isolationist, they probably wouldn't realize animals outside their lands can't hold conversations. To keep the Griffon/Horse dichotomy, Griffons likely raise (non-sentient) horses, something that is viewed by Ponies like Westerners view eating Great Apes at best (and allows for the existence of phrases like "gift horse" without referring to slavery).
** It's also possible that Gilda is a Griffin ambassador in Equestria without telling to Rainbow Dash, and just like the bad guy from ''[[LethalWeapon Lethal Weapon 2]]'', she had diplomatic immunity, and was abusing it.
* My personal canon is that the Griffon-Pony War ended a few years ago; Gilda is of the first generation to grow up knowing peace. but she still picked up on her parents' quiet animosity towards ponies, and so she hates them as well, with one exception. Meanwhile, Ponyville is in the shadow of Canterlot, the capital city. Since a country usually spreads out from the capital, and I imagine the war was sen mostly at the border between the two counties, it may be that none of them actually ''saw'' the war, meaning that it was too distant for them to develop emotional feelings against griffons. I'm not sure where the Young Fliers Camp would be located, but since the war is over they had no reason to bar griffons from joining. Gilda may have gotten some flak from the poinis that came from the border, but Rainbow Dash likely defended her like she did Flutershy at Flight School, which may be why they became friends in the first place. And this suddenly became an impromptu fanfic.

[[WMG: The Windigos came from Discord.]]
Discord created them to spread chaos, naturally.
* How could they create chaos if everypony was frozen solid? I think [[EvenEvilHasStandards Discord wouldn't like that.]]

[[WMG: Griffons aren't themselves a race.]]
Note that Rainbow Dash had to explain to Pinkie Pie just what Gilda was, whereas everyone understands what a dragon is right away. It's possible griffons aren't a race at all, and Gilda is the quintessinal result of a [[InterspeciesRomance lion and eagle getting familiar]], thus a unique creature in Equestria.
* Possibly supported by Rarity's interest when talking to Applejack at Pinkie's party:
-->I hear she's an old friend of Rainbow Dash; a griffin! So rare!
** We have a griffon in [=MMMMystery On The Friendship Express=], but he's French. Might support the idea that griffons are simply non-natives.

[[WMG: There ''are'' humans]]
But they aren't allowed to visit because the human to pony scale is the same as the human to pony toy scale.
** Or it's [[AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever the other way around.]] [[RuleOfFunny Because that would be funny.]]

[[WMG: There are other species that use magic.]]
But they are few and far between, which is why we haven't seen any other species besides unicorns that can directly use and control magic. Magic-using species could include kitsune, eastern dragons, (as they're generally depicted as having a variety of magical abilities) kirins, and perhaps even others. Different species may have different specialties of magic, like kitsune being able to shapeshift.

[[WMG: Mules are Equestria's go to source for migrant labor.]]
Combine the place of donkeys and mules within stereotypical Mexican culture, the fact that the only mule we saw was on Sweet Apple Acres, and the RealLife migrant work situation in the US.

[[WMG: What ''really'' happened to the humans]]
Humans and ponies once coexisted, but then one pony accidentally discovered how [[IAmAHumanitarian delicious they were]]. The ponies soon [[AscendedToCarnivorism ate up most of them]], and the rest fled. Every once in a while, a human will be sent back to see if it's safe, and the ponies will capture them and [[NightmareFuel make them into cupcakes, muffins, etc]].

[[WMG: Sea ponies are mythological]]

[[WMG: Zebras do have cutie marks.]]
However, they are more simplistic than the ones the pony species have. They are the same color as their stripes and they tend to resemble various tribal symbols.
* Furthermore, unlike ponies, zebras are born with their cutie marks, and so know right away what their lot in life shall be.

[[WMG: Minotaurs are half Human!]]
When I first saw the character Iron Will, I noticed he was bipedal but didn't really think much of it, and just assumed he was a bull. However, the characters specifically refer to him as a Minotaur. Minotaurs are by definition half bull, and half Human. Iron Will therefore implies the existence of Human beings in the Equestrian world. I suppose it's possible that in their world a Minotaur is simply a humanoid bull and that they could still have no knowledge of Humanity. But Griffons exist, and Rainbow Dash clearly defines a Griffon as being half eagle and half lion. Since Griffons remain true to their mythological roots, then why not Minotaurs?
* Then that means the reason they called him a monster is because he's [[DidYouJustRomanceCthulhu half]] [[HumansAreCthulhu human]]
* If Iron Will is half Human, his father might have been [[{{Dexter}} Jordan Chase]].

[[WMG: Pigs are nonsentient]]
Unlike all the other animals with hooves on the show, pigs are the only creatures who actually ''act'' like normal pigs. Most of the other animals with hooves, which are buffalo, cows, donkeys, sheep, Zecora the zebra, [[AndZoidberg that one mule]], and of course ponies, are all capable of speech with cows and sheep probably ''knowing'' they are merely livestock to the pony race in a mutually beneficial relationship and lampshading it whenever possible. The goats working for Iron Will, on the other hand, despite not talking are shown to be at least intelligent enough to function as normal people within pony society with Iron Will [[IntelligentUnintellible one the few people that can translate goat speak]].

Pigs, however, whenever they are shown do not talk at all and act like pigs in the real world, except a bit more friendlier. This may have something to do with [[PredatorsAreMean the omnivorous nature of pigs as the only hooved creatures that can survive purely on meat]].
* Before anyone points it out, yes ponies have been shown to eat eggs. This mostly comes from the probable higher protein and nutrition requirements magical ponies need and they don't technically count was meet since the eggs are unfertilized.
* How do you explain the diamond dogs? They're as sapient (sentience is merely being conscious) as ponies, but they're dogs and thus, more carnivorous. Not to mention dragons. I don't see too much of a co-relation between a creature's diet and how sapient a creature is.
* I'm talking about animals '''''WITH HOOVES'''''. I even said so in the first sentence!

[[WMG: Humans exist but we'll never see them]]
I'm presuming that humans and ponies exist separate from each other, similar to G1. Humans aren't fictional but they're non-magical and simply don't live near the fantastical animals.


[[WMG: All advanced technology is imported from humans]]
Ponies are magical, but not that scientifically advanced. Humans can't use magic and developed science more rapidly. We never see them because they live on another continent, but some ponies like human technology and have it imported. For example Vinyl Scratch's turntable and speakers.

[[WMG: Changelings can only feed off the love of living beings.]]
The magic of love needs to be a mutual bond, not an one way love of one being has to a deceased one. They can put mind control spells and bend the rules, but they cannot create fake love or love of the dead. That is why the Changeling queen allowed the [[GenreBlind let the princess to live]].

[[WMG: Now that the changelings have been driven out of Equestria, we won't see any more duplicate background ponies.]]

[[/folder]]

Example genealogy. Granny Smith marries Grandpa Macintosh stallion, produces a colt name Papa Macintosh. Unknown Grandpa marries Granny Apple, produces filly named Mama Apple.

The only potential wrench in this are the cakes. It possible that both were born with the name cake. Thus it possible they were both distant(or rather squicky, not so distant) relatives. Thus both their children of both genders are named cake.

Only Mares can be Alicorns [[http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/2d2b1d850a94b5218083f874ad0170ef/72960%20-%20Alicorn%20armor%20artist%3Aequestria-prevails%20Faust_Empress%20Goddess_Empress_Of_Ponykind%20god_emperor%20god_empress%20lauren_faust%20lauren_faust_is_best_pony%20mother_mare%20oc%20ponyhammer%20Ponyhammer_40k%20the_queen%20warhammer_40k%20Warhammer_40000.png Faust is the Empress]]

* HighOctaneNightmareFuel

Humans and ponies once coexisted, but then one pony accidentally discovered how [[IAmAHumanitarian delicious they were]]. The ponies soon [[AscendedToCarnivorism ate up most of them]], and the rest fled. Every once in a while, a human will be sent back to see if it's safe, and the ponies will capture them and [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel make them into cupcakes, muffins, etc]].