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How Much Time Did The 1st 3 Seasons Cover?


sweetolebob18

How long were the 1st 3 Seasons?  

37 users have voted

  1. 1. How may years did the 1st 3 seasons cover?

    • 1 year
      16
    • 2 years
      5
    • 3 years
      5
    • Don't know, Don't care
      6
    • Other
      5


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This seems so obvious, I am sure there is already a thread.  I did a search, but I have poor Internet skills & was not able to find any duplicates.   I apologize for the extra work if this needs to be merged.

 

The Case For 1 Year.

Episodes 1 & 2 Nightmare Moon escapes on the "longest day of the year" (June 21, year 1).

 

Season 4, Episode 1. Twilight says it is "2 days to the Summer Sun Festival".  Celestia strongly implies (but does NOT specifically state), that this is the 1st SSF since then.

 

This would explain why the SSF is the only duplicated holiday, & why the CMCs don't really grow.

 

The calendar says Summer is June 21-September 21. However, here in the USA, Summer is considered to run from Memorial Day weekend (last weekend in May) to Labor Day weekend (1st weekend in Sept).  All of June is considered a Summer month & all of September is considered Autumn.

 

Episode 56 One Bad Apple, the CMCs were building a float for The Summer Harvest Festival.  This could be in June even if the calendar says it isn't Summer yet. 

 

Episode 60 Apple Family Reunion.  Babs mentions her new school.  This means it has to take place at least early August & could be as late as start of November (based on when apples are harvested IRL) (In episode 1, AJ was specified as being in charge of the food for the SSF.  IMO, the Apples were there to help out, not as a formal family reunion).  Twilight is not in this episode.  Spike & the other Mane 6 members have cameos, helping to get ready. T does NOT.  This means it could take place after Episode 65 Magical Mystery Cure.  IMO, it also takes place after S4 E7 Flutterbat because during the reunion the Fruit Bats attack one pony's hat, starting the stampede that wrecked the barn.  However, AJ doesn't tell Fluttershy "Them dang bats attacked my kinfolk & wrecked my barn".  Which she would have if those events had already happened.

 

It is physically possible for all events to take place over 1 year (VERY tight timing, but IMO it is possible),  even though only 2 episodes happen over winter.

 

The Case For Longer

 

Celestia does not specifically say it was 1 year.

 

Apple Family Reunion

 

Based on T's increase in public respect & magic power, a LOT has to happen after Winter Wrap Up including Canterlot Wedding & Crystal Empire, Hearts & Hooves Day, All the Babs episodes, Magic Duel, It's About Time, Magical Mystery Cure, probably Best Night Ever (which means so do Ticket Master & Suited For Success) .

 

How long does Magical Mystery Cure take?  If you assume 1 day, then you have to assume the farm being so run down & AJ boarding up the shop were exaggerations for artistic effects.  Also, F quit pretty fast, R's weather & the town folks being so grumpy, 1 day seems pretty quick.  If you assume, say, a month, timeline gets even tighter. IMO it is physically possible to fit it all into 90 days, but IDK for sure.

 

There is also the question of How long did other episodes take?  Return of Harmony, Dragon Quest, Wonderbolts Academy, among others.

 

I'm trying to build an episode timeline & this is obviously the 1st thing to settle.  

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Less than one Equestrian Year as evidenced in Princess Twilight Sparkle which was one year year from episode 1-1. One Equestrian year may or may not equal 365.25 days like here.

  • Brohoof 3
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I voted "Other" because there's no "Don't know, do care" option.

 

One Equestrian year may or may not equal 365.25 days like here.

 

Yes, this. A thousand times this.

 

On Mars, for example, a year is 668.6 days long. And because of the eccentricity of it's orbit, the seasons (judged as the time periods between equinoxes and solstices) are not all equal length.

 

Also, given that in Equestria, the sun and the seasons are controlled by pony magic, Celestia probably has a little flexibility in controlling when they happen. Summer and spring, for example, might be scheduled to last a little longer than the other seasons because they're more popular.

Edited by Vital Sparkle
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I personally find it hard to believe that only a year has passed. Even going on the basis that one year in Equestria isn't equal to an Earth year and that the episodes aren't aired in chronological order of events, we see the seasons pass at least twice. Both S1 and S2 had an episode that took place during winter, Winter Wrap Up and Hearths Warming Eve respectively, yet from a character growth perspective, it feels like more these two episodes do not take place within a few months of one another.

 

Not only that, but Lesson Zero implied that Twilight was somehow able to send a letter once a week for some period of time. Yet the amount of letters Twilight receives in Return of Harmony looks to be far more than a year's worth, again accounting for the fact that Equestrian Year may be longer than 52 weeks. If I were to make a rough guess, i would hazard to say somewhere between two and two-and-a-half years pass from S1 to the end of S3.

Edited by PoisonClaw
  • Brohoof 4
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It's hard to tell and to be honest I don't really try to pay much attention to it. The writing has been pretty inconsistent with the passage of time, using ballpark dates such as "a thousand years ago" and throwing around the term "moons" lightly when I doubt the writers actually know what they're implying.

 

For example, in "Apple Family Reunion", Granny Smith states that it has been "100 moons" since the last reunion. The last reunion was seen in the show's pilot. Taken literally, 100 months means 8.3 years. It could be dismissed as simple hyperbole, but the show's continuity is very loose when it comes to making a timeline and inconsistencies like this are everywhere.

 

I cannot think of Twilight coming down from her ivory tower and becoming a princess over the course of one year. That is much too fast and unbelieveable for any world. I'd be more accepting of 3 to 5 years being the timeline of this show, but there are too many inconsistencies for me to make a sound theory on that, so I've really stopped trying to think seriously about it.

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The show creators are as nebulous with time as they are with character ages, yet the show is sprinkled with events that could be put into a timeline. However, I would much rather think that the length of time in Equestria matches the length of the show and is closer to 4 years at this point.

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North Wind  

IMO, you have a very good point about the # of letters C returns in Return of Harmony. I had overlooked this.  However, episode 1, it was clearly stated that AJ was in charge of food for the SSF.  IMO, the other Apples were there to help w the prep & to see the SSF.  I don't think this was a formal reunion because AB was about the same size in this episode as she was in Apple Family Reunion & if episode 1 was a reunion that would mean 8+ years had passed & she should have grown.

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  • 4 months later...

Season 5 Tanks For The Memories, Rainbow's comment that this was their 1st Winter together makes sense only if you assume Season 2 May the Best Pet Win takes place in Spring, year 1.  It seems to be Hasbro's position that it was just 1 year.

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In fact there is a thread somewhere already. I mentioned there that maybe we should

start a huge project to list every episode in a logic order that makes the timeline of MLP:FiM linear

but let's not do that. I guess if there are enough people who are dedicated, you could get 2-3 people to work on getting each season in some logical order.

I dunno. Maybe it's a stretch...

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Ordering the episodes in linear order may be one way to go about answering this question.  I took another tack and actually counted the number of days we see pass in each episode.  I even made a spreadsheet describing my findings:

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AH14vROkzJcO1cnfJNXCjiSA7xFnUoT3baxBxPtk8Ck/edit?usp=sharing

 

I then created and released a few videos on this subject:  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLulssWdh9XqKuhJFHrnyZMcIcMSWDZwI6

 

Basically, about 230 days were observed to pass in the episodes of Seasons 1-3.  Understandably not every day would be covered in an episode so, if a year were to contain 365 days like our universe, then stating about a year has elapsed does make sense.  Especially when you take into account:

 

  1. Only two Summer Sun Celebrations are seen to pass, an event that occurs once a year
  2. It's stated in Ticket Master that the Apple Family Reunion is also an annual event, one was seen to occur in the first episode of the show and the second occurred late in Season 3

 

There are a number of other little hints as well.  But again, one cannot definitively say a year in Equestria is 365 days (though we can say how long a second is, how many seconds are in a minute, how many minutes are in an hour, how many hours are in a day, and even how many days are in a week...)

 

Anyway, just some of my thoughts on the subject.

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My head keeps telling me that it should have been at least two years because to have had that much action in just one year would be too much.

 

However, this is a fictional show in a fictional world. They probably have wacky things going on there everyday. I would have to go with one year then simply because we should have seen some kind of change in the Mane 6 over the course of 2-3 years but they're are exactly the same as they were in the first episode except for Twilight who has wings now.

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I used to think it was around three or so years, with Season 3 & 4 roughly happening in the span of one. I think the Summer Sun Celebration happens in the first half of the season, so Season 4 could conceivably happen between then and the following fall

 

And then "first winter together" comes along and suggests that even more crap happened in that same year, up to and including the royal wedding. And if one includes the comics in that continuity, then one will go mad.

 

I still say around three years or so, but that last one was one eventful year.

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(edited)

I work under the assumption that one season is equal to one year's time passing in Equestria. Sure one might expect to see some aging during this amount of time.

 

One year just seems too short for everything to happen within one year, and it is next to impossible to determine time because the seasons and even the sun and moon operate under different principles than real life ones so it may be a fool's errand to try and directly correlate the two. 

 

The lack of specifics in terms of time passing also does not help matters as 100 moons so far is the only specific number tied between corresponding events i.e. Applejack's Family Reunions, and it just so happened Twilight arrived in Ponyville during one of those times.

 

This is not even mentioning the possible occurrences that may happen off screen as well.

 

Actually I am starting to like the idea of a each season being six months.

 

There is also the measurement between the events of Equestria Grirls and Rainbow Rocks of six moons as well.

Edited by UnknownFry
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  • 1 month later...

There are some problems with "it's 1 year".  Biggest would be if the Apple Family gathering in episode 1 is considered an official reunion.  In Apple Family Reunion, Granny Smith says they have them every 100 moons.  One of these has to be wrong, the 1st 3 seasons took 8+ years, or the EQ calendar is WAY different from Earth's & has a full moon about 2x a week (Possible.  Remember Luna controls the moon, it doesn't necessarily follow natural phases)

 

Take your pick who is right.  I'm going with "Wikipedia has it wrong" (Big shock there, never happened before in the history of the universe) & it was a family gathering but not the official reunion

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Ordering the episodes in linear order may be one way to go about answering this question.  I took another tack and actually counted the number of days we see pass in each episode.  I even made a spreadsheet describing my findings:

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AH14vROkzJcO1cnfJNXCjiSA7xFnUoT3baxBxPtk8Ck/edit?usp=sharing

 

I then created and released a few videos on this subject:  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLulssWdh9XqKuhJFHrnyZMcIcMSWDZwI6

 

Basically, about 230 days were observed to pass in the episodes of Seasons 1-3.  Understandably not every day would be covered in an episode so, if a year were to contain 365 days like our universe, then stating about a year has elapsed does make sense.  Especially when you take into account:

 

 

  • Only two Summer Sun Celebrations are seen to pass, an event that occurs once a year
  • It's stated in Ticket Master that the Apple Family Reunion is also an annual event, one was seen to occur in the first episode of the show and the second occurred late in Season 3
 

There are a number of other little hints as well.  But again, one cannot definitively say a year in Equestria is 365 days (though we can say how long a second is, how many seconds are in a minute, how many minutes are in an hour, how many hours are in a day, and even how many days are in a week...)

 

Anyway, just some of my thoughts on the subject.

hi, Corpulent! Didn't know you were here! (Is that weird, not knowing, even though I'm a subsciber? Or maybe it's not, and just proves I'm not some crazy stalker of you XD )

Anyway, thanks for linking to your timey wimey video. I thought of posting it, myself, so that saves me time from aving to search through faves for it.

  • Brohoof 1
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i actually had a theory remember when the portal too the human world was said too open only every 30 moons? 30 moons roughly translates to 3 earth years so that means that the time between the portal opening back then and when EQG2 was aired was 3 years but upon seeing EQG2 it was not the case (portal+book = interdimentional travel . bit of a stretch there Hasbro) because twilight opened up the portal with a book i ain't going into that here okay? so my debunked theory on equestrian time...

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There are some problems with "it's 1 year". Biggest would be if the Apple Family gathering in episode 1 is considered an official reunion. In Apple Family Reunion, Granny Smith says they have them every 100 moons. One of these has to be wrong, the 1st 3 seasons took 8+ years, or the EQ calendar is WAY different from Earth's & has a full moon about 2x a week (Possible. Remember Luna controls the moon, it doesn't necessarily follow natural phases)

 

Take your pick who is right. I'm going with "Wikipedia has it wrong" (Big shock there, never happened before in the history of the universe) & it was a family gathering but not the official reunion

Well, Granny Smith could be wrong, or as you mentioned, Equestria might not follow our calendar, and Luna controls the moon. It might not even be regular and the length of the year might depend on ponies. Don't forget before Twilight they were late in wrapping up winter every year, at least in ponyville.

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I don't know if the measure of time in Equestria is the same as here but from Episode 1 of the series to Episode 1 of season 4 is one year because it goes from Summer Sun Celebration to Summer Sun Celebration, which is very likely an annual event so I'd say Seasons 1-3 are a little less than an Equestrian year.

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Season 4's opener more or less confirmed that one year had passed with Celestia stating it had been one year since the defeat of Nightmare Moon. Now if you look at the number of ep between seasons 1 to 3 we have 65 which if the MLP world roughly have 50 weeks, it would more or less give each week one to two episode per week. While the season 1 to 3 episodes are kind of all over the place, and I'm pretty sure the writers know that, so looking from season 4 on it seems they have been trying to streamline them more into something that will make more sense moving forward...at least I think they are.  

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