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Bits and Pieces


Fhaolan

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Okay, I've got a collection of little bits here, none of which have ended up big enough for an essay of their own. Mostly updates to previous entries.

 

Also, this one will be the last essay on the 'every week' schedule, as I've covered all the bigger ideas I had and I've fulfilled my need to get most of this junk down somewhere so it's not clogging up my mind, preventing me from concentrating on other projects. I'll still do more entries, but it will be less regular and more when inspiration strikes. Hopefully, this means I'll make some progress on the fanfiction ideas that have started pestering me more consistently recently.

 


 

Money

 

Have I mentioned before that the term 'bit' as a monetary unit amuses me? It's a real thing actually. In the United States 'two bits' refers to 25 cents, also known as a quarter for the exact same reason. It's a cultural hold-over from when the United States did not have it's own consistent currency and was primarily using the Spanish dollar (also known as the eight-reale coin, peso de ocho, or in English: pieces of eight.) It was common practice to cut the coin into segments to produce lesser denominations, the smallest being one eighth or just a bit of a dollar.

 

Which in my mind means eight bits should make a buck. In which case ponies could say things like "I don't give a buck!" meaning they don't think something is worth eight bits. :comeatus:

 


 

Gemstones

 

The Elements of Harmony turn out to have come from the Everfree Forest, as a kind of fruit of a special tree. Okay, fine. And now returned to the tree. Sure, whatever.

 

But they were gemstones in nearly all incarnations. Which in a way lines up the fact that gemstones in Equestria are not treated in any way like gems are in this world.

 

Gemstones in Equestria are found everywhere, in clusters of a variety of colors, usually encased in rock. However, they already appear cut and polished when freed from their encasement. Spike and Rarity use real-world names for different gems, but apply them differently. Spike talks about ripening, and 'seasons' for gems as if they grow and can 'go bad'. Carat is a measure of weight, and the carat values Rarity applies to gems would indicate that these gems are incredibly light for their size.

 

Gemstones appear to be, organic is not the right word here, but they appear to behave in an organic way. As if they are an aluminum silicate version of a truffle in Equestria. As such, they aren't as valuable as they would be here.

 


 

The Crystal Empire

 

The place billed as the Crystal Empire is still likely to be the Imperial Capital rather than the entire Empire. However, in re-viewing the Crystal Empire episodes, it is heavily implied that the Crystal Ponies were an imperial power that dominated all of Equestria via a form of emotional control using the Crystal Heart. Not necessarily in a bad way, or even in a conscious way, until Sombra took control, but still the Empire officially included all of Equestria according to those episodes. This is basically just verification of what I had originally written.

 


 

Alicorns

 

We've seen a couple of animation errors with alicorns in the background, and another showed up in Rarity Takes Manhattan. With the animation assets upgrade in Season 4, I'm starting to question the 'error' part of that. With the way Cadence was a foalsitter, the way Twilight believed there may be a Princess she had never met in that same episode, and the way Twilight is being treated now, there is an increasingly strong possibility that alicorns may not be as rare as the show is implying. That there are more than just the current four running around, and that these other alicorns have no higher potential than any other pony.

 


 

Festivals

 

I knew I had missed one when I had that open slot on the cusp of Summer and Fall. The Summer Harvest festival from the Babs Seed episode. It's odd putting a harvest festival in the summer, as the word 'harvest' actually means autumn in Old English. But there are crops that do come in at the end of Summer, so putting it right before Fall starts does make sense. What's actually being put on display during that festival is very odd, as there's a big emphasis on gourds and tree fruit, which are definitely a mid-autumn harvest in most locales, but whatever. It's more likely this festival was deliberately placed at this time, as a warm Summer festival with a harvest pretext.

 


 

Sophistry

 

Gilda, a gryphon, is a natural predator, being a blending of an eagle and a lion. Yet she is treated as a rare curiosity. Iron Will, a minotaur, is called a monster on various occasions, yet the general populace accepts his presence with no qualms. Cows can buy and sell products, travel on trains and go into stores, yet are herded and penned. Their close relatives, the buffalo, have their own culture and customs and rarely interact with ponies unless forced. Sheep have talked, goats run stage shows, and they get penned as well. Zecora, a zebra, was a focus of fear until a filly made it her business to change that. Various donkeys and mules run around Ponyville just fine, but do have to deal with some unfortunate racial slurs on occasion. Horses are considered separate from Ponies, and we've seen Saddle Arabians who appear more horse-like, but only the once and never again. And we haven't seen any Changelings beyond the Wedding Invasion. We think.

 

Zecora could be explained as being the pony equivalent to the 'Uncanny Valley' reaction. She looks just like a pony, but not, making ponies react automatically without realizing the source. The rest seem to follow the same pattern as the Hearth's Warming Eve story. Ponies form strong societies that are difficult to break into.

 

Ponies are clannish, that's a given. They are based off of herd animals after all.

 

The problem this is starting to face, from a worldbuilding perspective, is that with all these intelligent species and their relative positions in Equestrian society, it's starting to resemble real-world race relations. And that is one extremely twitchy topic, especially the day after MLK day here in the 'states. This is one of the reasons I decided to put off publishing this one on the normal Monday schedule.

 

I'm not going into it here, because I've made the conscious decision that I am not going to talk about current real-life issues in this context. It's not appropriate, and I'm not qualified. If I could do it in suitably vague or historical terms, I might try, but what I've worked out of what I would say is far too current and specific to be anything other than needlessly inflammatory.

  • Brohoof 1

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