While I mostly liked the episode (I admit the logic behind dragon-aging is a bit wonky), I have to agree about the shipping. I'd have put canon ships just below main character death in the list of things I never, ever expected to see happen in the series.

 

Rarity <3

/filler

 

Funny little comic linked to avoid page-stretching.

 

New episode.

Some Equestria history. And Pinkie Pie being awesome.

Spoiler

I can think outside the box. That means I can think inside a chimney. Can you think inside a chimney?

 

That was a great Pinkie Pie episode.

I'm just wondering how and when Celestia, Luna and Discord fit into that story. Celestia and Luna were on the flag they put up, but they weren't mentioned at all. They didn't even raise the sun and moon, apparently, since the unicorns were said to do that. Maybe the flag was an anachronism?

 

I'm curious about that too.

Anyway, I can't wait to make snowponies.

 

Pinkie Pie was absolutely hilarious this episode, though Applejack constantly playing the straight man/snarker to Pinkie's wackiness helped. And the only thing more hilariously hammy than normal Rarity is Rarity when she's acting.



Also, I can't help but be a bit amused by the pegasi being a military dictatorship in the pre-harmony past, since it dovetails so nicely with the pegasi becoming a military dictatorship after the apocalypse in Fallout:Equestria.

 

Might have been a reference by Faust. She's reportedly lurked in the fandom more than one occasion.

 

Yeah, you do get occasional fandom nods, so it wouldn't completely shock me, especially since Fallout:Equestria is one of the most well-known and popular MLP:FiM fics out there. On the other hand, it could just be a coincidence; the basic plot outline of an episode gets cranked out months before the actual air-date.

Also, on the whole flag issue, the two ponies on the flag don't actually look that much like Celestia and Luna, so it could just be a case of the original flag just having a pair of alicorns on it since a flag featuring a fusion of all three pony races kind of makes sense for the new combined state.

Or, like Red Aviary suggested, it's just an anachronism; ponies probably wouldn't be any better than people at recognizing a flag that's over a thousand years old.

 

Might be an intentional sacrifice of historical accuracy. A modern flag would drive the theme of the play home better to the audience than some ancient flag no one recognizes.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure this slice of history takes place before Discord came about. Celestia says that Discord ruled Equestria in the first episode of season two and, well, Equestria didn't even exist as a nation until the three races united. Even if she was referring to the land using the modern name for it instead of the more period-accurate name (in the same way someone might call the land technically known as Gaul a few thousand years ago France), evidently no one lived there, and it wouldn't make sense for Discord to rule over someplace without anyone to torture.

I'm still interested in Celestia and Luna's origins.

 

Assuming this story does occur pre-Discord (which I agree fits the timeline best), that does make the happy ending just a bit less happy. Presumably shortly after the ponies finally learn how to live together in Equestria, Discord shows up and takes over.

I'm also curious about Celestia and Luna's origins, especially since we learned that the whole sun/moon thing used to just be handled by the normal unicorns. Maybe we'll learn more about it at some point; the rumor mill says that a third alicorn is showing up later in the season.

Also, found an awesome comic.

 

They might've had at least a few centuries of peace in order to set up their kingdom, or whatever form of government they were using. Speaking of which, how would they have managed to keep the balance of power in order? It seems like having a monarch wouldn't work, as they would have to be an earth pony, a pegasus or a unicorn, and whichever race held the throne would have an advantage over the others which would likely not be appreciated. Did they have something like the Citadel Council in Mass Effect? If so, was power seized by Celestia and Luna after defeating Discord in order to restore order, or given freely?

Well that does sound potentially interesting. But I try not to put much stock in rumors. I'll wait for better confirmation than that to get my hopes up.

Also, found this and thought it was cool. I don't remember if it was linked here earlier already. If so, apologies.

 

Some sort of Council consisting of members of all three pony types seems like the most likely setup for the first Equestrian government. All three races had their own, very different, forms of government, so the best way to run things while letting everyone get along would probably have been to just have the three pony leaders all work together. The three pony groups probably even kept their different methods of picking leaders and running their own affairs, with the Equestrian government being more of a UN-type organization that coordinated things between the three tribes.

As for Celestia and Luna taking power, I doubt they just seized power with no legitimacy. If I had to take a guess, I would say that they're related to the Unicorn royalty (what with things like Blueblood being Celestia great^52 nephew), gained leadership of the Pegasi military during the fight against Discord, and won the election for Chancellor of the Earth Ponies. With Celestia being effectively immortal, the three positions eventually just merged.

That does raise the rather interesting question of whether Celestia originally held all three offices, or if at one point Luna was Commander of the Pegasi or Chancellor of the Earth Ponies. It would put an interesting spin on the idea that Celestia and Luna originally ruled together.

Edit: Also, just came across some interesting Word of Faust on Celestia's abilities.

 

This has probably already been posted, but whatever.

I don't watch MLP, and frankly, the idea of not-five-year-old-girls liking the show raises my eyebrows a little, and that's coming from someone who has watched every episode of Sailor Moon and at least the first three seasons of Pretty Cure.

That said, I was looking for my daily dose of Fus Ro Da! and ran across this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3e6zsGSLus

 

Oh God. Oh God it hurts! There are literally tears of laughter coming out of my eyes. I've never laughed so hard at anything in my entire life. I'm sure of it.

Fluttershy! Dovahkiin!

Oh God I can't breathe.

 

Well, there was no new episode this weekend, but I can give you this:

British Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.

 

I still don't really understand why this show is so awesome; but it really is :awesome also California girls MLP version

 

On a totally unrelated note, I'm somewhat surprised nobody has made a pony version of the Evangelion opening yet. Pony fans love doing pony versions of the openings sequences of other series, and the Eva opening gets copied all the time by youtubers.

 

I thought I saw an Evangelion one a few months ago, but it was really shitty. Can't find it now.

Speaking of cool pony-themed openings though... Pony League Unlimited.

EDIT: I found the Evangelion opening I had watched. Like I said, shitty.