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Hearth's Warming Eve (December 17th 2011, 22 minutes)

Summary: The dead of winter, and the true meaning of Equestria!

I've been waiting for this one. Before I begin my normal 'here's what I noticed' spiel, I'm going to address the fact that what I'm about to watch is the ponies putting on a play, and therefore cannot be taken as History. That is true in a way. It's no more 'true' history than Shakespeare's various plays like Henry V and so on. Shakespeare wrote his historical plays while under the patronage of the crown, for the most part. Basically, his 'take' on these topics were heavily colored by what he believed Queen Elizabeth I wanted to see and would approve of. In the same way, a play on the history of Equestria like this is likely written to be what the playwright believed Princess Celestia wanted to see.

There are some signs that there are kernels of truth in this play. Twilight is an expert on Starswirl the Bearded. If she says that Clover the Clever was Starswirl's apprentice, and doesn't kick up a fuss about it, then I think we need to take that as what she actually believes. That doesn't mean the play is in any way accurate, but it seems to be what the ponies want to believe happened. As such, it is still a reflection of pony culture, even if it is not word-for-word what really happened. As I tell people who want me to run RPGs for them, there's 'what people believe happened', 'what people wrote down as happened', 'what really happened', and the types of storylines I tend to run explore the differences between those three things.

Anyway, on with the 'what I noticed':

Ahhh! Rarity and her hats. There are no words.

Here's the reference that to my knowledge is the best indication of the actual size of the ponies. "An eight-foot candy cane." Using that as a reference, that puts the foal (Scootaloo, which is interesting she's even in Canterlot at this point) beside it a little over 2' at the top of her head. Put Scootaloo beside an average adult mare, and it works out that the mare is about three and a half feet to the top of her head. Celestia ends up being a little less than 5' tall. Of course, this is all dependent on the ponies using the same definition of the 'foot' measure, of course.

Lots of evergreen trees that were not present in prior views of Canterlot. So they import trees specifically for the season in order to decorate them.

Rarity refers to this as a 'pageant', not a play or a pantomime. That's actually an important distinction. A pageant is meant to be instructive; teaching 'history', morals, etc. For reference, a pantomime is a musical comedy with considerable slapstick, actors (and actresses) in drag, audience participation, etc. I bring up pantomime because in English tradition Christmas is the primary holiday for pantomime performances.

Yeah, this is pretty much what backstage is like during a big production.

Spike specifically says 'before the rule of Celestia', so ponies do believe there was a time when Celestia was not the 'Princess'. I notice Luna not being mentioned. Possibly this play was written during the time Luna was in exile, and therefore it was not politic to mention her. Or, Celestia became Princess before Luna did.

The pegasi outfits are very Roman in appearance. So far the earth pony costumes are unremarkable peasant gear that could be from pretty much any period. The unicorns are more Middle Ages.

Pegasi control the weather, yeah, yeah. *Only* the earth ponies could grow food. And the unicorns control the day/night cycles. As a note, the storybook intro in the first episode specifically says the princesses use their 'Unicorn powers' to control the day/night cycles, and are only referred to as alicorns much later in the series. They're called 'Winged Unicorns', which may mean that Celestia and Luna were considered to still be Unicorns.

The hat the earth pony is wearing is a form of keffiyeh, sudra or ghutrah. Basically a headscarf with a band (agal) to keep it in place. Currently this is a very middle eastern style common throughout region, but is truly ancient due to it's simplicity and could be found in any arid region on the Eurasian continent in every period.

Earth pony huts are depicted as circular one-room stone buildings with a thatched roof, seen in the Iron and Bronze ages in most of Western Europe.

Pegasi buildings are again, Greek and Roman in inspiration.

And the Unicorn castles are Middle Age keeps with crenelated towers.

Rarity is playing the 'daughter of the Unicorn King', not the actual ruler of the unicorns, while the other tribes sent their rulers, a Commander, and a Chancellor. Commander is interesting, as normally this title refers not to 'the one in command', but 'the one given command to', meaning that there was someone above them to give this power. It's possible this is currently the highest rank for the pegasi, but there was once a higher one. As in the Commander is also a regent, much like the Stewards of Gondor in the Lord of the Rings. Chancellor is the highest rank in the government in many systems, but was originally the Roman equivalent to the modern court reporter.

Pinkie's outfit, especially the neck ruff, is very Elizabethan, so the Earth Ponies in this are being depicted in a vast range of historical periods and styles, where the pegasi and unicorns are very focused on specific periods and locations. That's interesting.

Fluttershy's helm... I'm not sure where to start on this one. It appears to be a blending of a Galea helm and a much later period Morian helm. This is pretty unique, and something that belongs to just the ponies. As a note, this character's rank of 'private' is originally from the medieval period, referring to mercenary or conscripted soldiers who reported to a specific nobleman rather than a national or royal army. So like the helm it's oddly out-of-place with the general Roman feel the play is giving the pegasi.

And Applejack is wearing an early form of the Tyrolean hat. I'm not going to bother with Pinkie's hat. It's just being silly.

Pegasopolis, Unicornia, Earth. Interesting, so what was the names of the original places they came from?

That's one heck of a theatre. I think it's actually Celestia's throne room being repurposed. If it was an actual theatre, the floor would be sloped towards the stage to allow rear seating's to see the stage.

I've been in board meetings that were much like this. "That's *my* rock!"

Windigos. Nice name. Windigo is a real variant spelling of the Wendigo, sometimes also called a Wihtikow, Manaha, or Wechuge. An Algonquian and Athabaskan mythological spiritual creature associated with winter, famine, cold, and greed. People possessed by a Wendigo become cannibalistic. They're pretty much playing this one straight, with minimal ponification outside of the appearance.

Twilight saying straight out that Clover the Clever was mentored by Starswirl the Bearded.

Windigos are one of the several creatures that feed off of emotional energy, this one being conflict and hatred.

Clover undergoes a magic surge sponsored by the magic of Friendship. Not sure what to make of the flaming heart symbol.

And the one really out-of-place thing, the flag of Equestria being used that depicts two Alicorns in a ying-yang like arrangement. Probably not the historical flag, but the current one used out of expedience.