Comet Tail

Well, yeah, ever since I learned of the name I started calling it that

This was early in my researches before I discovered that name. "Terra" is latin for Earth, so it worked well enough. I now have an entire blog dedicated to stuff like this: http://asksciencepony.tumblr.com/

Hah, they drew the rope going out in an Apollo-type trajectory (orbits Earth, then shoots out to Moon coming in on the moon from the opposite side than the side of the Earth that it came from). Anyways, yeah, you kinda have to disregard the comic's moon for anything to work physics-wise, and just stick with the show.

That's really not what he was saying... Whether artificial or natural, any object orbiting another will behave the same way, with the exception that a very large mass will behave very, very slightly differently (I'm talking a mass the size of the moon or so causing a slight wobble in the parent body's orbit as the two orbit the common center of mass) - but for all intents and purposes - pretty much the same. From what I got, it looked like he described a system where the planet would become tidally locked with the sun, and Celestia prevents that from happening, keeping their world habitable, whilst Luna keeps the moon's orbit from decaying due to tidal braking.

Why is moon-glow a problem? Admittedly, the night-side of the moon seems to be reflecting light as well, but I should point out that it will reflect both starlight and reflected light from Earth. If OP's analysis on the apparent retrograde motion of the moon is anything to go by, it seems that the moon could be in a much lower orbit and much smaller; in which case it would reflect a lot more light from Earth than ours does. Also, this is purely visual. I'm not sure the animation is a good source for measuring relative apparent magnitudes. Considering how large ponies' eyes are, I'd almost expect them to be sensitive enough to see the night side of the moon rather well Furthermore, it's very possible that life on Equestria made adaptations to magic. One example I can produce as to how quickly life can adapt is Movile Cave, Romania.[Link] Life there is based on chemosynthesis rather than photosynthesis, and has adapted to oxygen levels less than half that of open air, and thrives off of methane and hydrogen sulfide. Similarly, once magic was introduced to Equestria, it's very believable that life there began to adapt in such a way to take advantage of the newly-introduced resources, then outpopulate non-adaptive life through natural selection, resulting in a biome that has become dependent upon magic. I could list the reasons I'm both disgusted and horrified by the geocentric model, but not the least of which is that it largely precludes any significant space travel, and limits the habitable confines of the universe to be extremely small, indeed, more or less precluding the rich vastness of the universe as we know it. The wonder of the vastness of the universe is, in my opinion, one of the very things that make life worth living. A universe confined to a single world is truly a horrifying prospect to me, to say the least. Fantastic read. Though I must ask, it sounded like your description of pre-magical Equestria has the moon sitting at Lagrange Point L1? Or I suppose it could work anywhere, in general. It seems to me though, that a lunar orbital period as long as a year would put the moon at such a distance that orbital effects of each body's orbit around the star would drive the two worlds apart. Admittedly, I don't have much of a quantitative argument, but qualitatively I believe that would be very far outside Earth's SOI. Oh, and I've quoted this particular paragraph because it seems to me to hint very strongly that there's a connection, which seems to stand out to me. If the princesses put the world into a rotation with negligable axial tilt, then that would explain why seasons must be done manually. A short burst of activity to somehow create a thick cloud layer to reflect much of the sun's light, cooling the surface, allowing for snow and a runaway process of increased albedo, and thus cooled surface, could create an artificial winter. When it comes time to end it, they need only decrease the amount of area that reflective objects (clouds, snow) cover and thus decrease their worlds' albedo, causing a runaway warming effect to melt the rest of the snow. Thinking on this further; the amount of horsepower required for this would be staggering - essentially completely impossible for a world like Equus (Equestria's planet). An idea that comes to mind is perhaps that there are regular seasons - but that their effects are minute enough to not overpower the runaway effects... Actually, as I've been typing out, I've decided to make my own post about this. It'll be coming shortly. EDIT: Here it is as the latest post at the moment: http://asksciencepony.tumblr.com/ Permalink: http://asksciencepony.tumblr.com/post/109959398800/non-sequitur-winter-wrap-up

No, but we've seen very direct and more-or-less-unmistakable implications of those things. Pony shipping (finding Cherilee a "special somepony") + Cakes having the baby twins, plus word of Faust that they reproduce by normal mammal means (they are ponies). And we have seen both Rarity use the excuse "I need to use the fillies' room," and this makes it absolutely unmistakable. So yes, a lack of evidence where we'd expect to see evidence, is in fact evidence of a lack. But then again, seeing as it needs to keep a TV-Y rating, we probably wouldn't see those things even if they were intended ("where we'd expect to see evidence," as I just put it), but again, why would they make them intended if they're never to be seen or directly implied? Sooo... Essentially, it's just a "no" because this is a TV-Y universe. But if you want to headcanon those things in, you can, but they'll never be canonized. On top of the TV-Y thing, they also probably wouldn't want to do anything that'd be controversial, least they burn themselves by invoking those on the other side of the debate.

Heh, to quote a friend of mine; "The thing people have a hard time understanding about freedom of speech, is it includes people who you don't agree with." It's deplorable and sad, as you say. Just like how often reverse racism and reverse sexism is, for some reason, seen as o.k, by the very same people who are so adamantly opposed to sexism and racism. There's just so many double standards out there it's... deplorable and sad (a women's college? A black college? Let's try a white male college and see how well that goes over, eh?). Oh, yes, I was mostly joking. Mostly. It's not a compelling case to say the least, but it is interesting. Also, "absence of evidence doesn't mean evidence of absence" is only circumstantially true. If I'm in an empty gymnasium, and I don't see any evidence of an elephant in the room - when if there were an elephant, I should definitely see evidence - then the absence of evidence is, in fact, evidence. It's not always the case, though. You can stand on the beach, and look out on the ocean and not see any whales. In fact, it'd be extremely unusual to see a whale. In that case, lack of evidence is not an evidence of a lack. In a situation, you have to ask yourself; "if X were true, would I see evidence of it?" Sometimes the answer is "yes," like an elephant in the gym. Sometimes it's "no," like a whale in the ocean. For the former, that phrase doesn't apply. For the latter, it does. And then sometimes you can't even answer that question with certainty, heh. Anyways, we now have about 30 hours of the show, and there's never been a single cigarette, any drugs, any alcohol, any extra-marrital sexuality, etc. Sure you can say; "they just don't show it because it's a kids show," but if you go strictly off of what they do show, then if those things were common at all, we would have expected to see them by now; so there's a rather strong case to be made that they aren't present. And if you say; "they just don't show them," well, you could say that about anything, then, so it's not a very compelling argument. These things are special, yes, in that they'd never show them in a kids' show, but I'd say that only strengthens the argument that they don't exist in the canon: we can say with certainty that they'll never appear canonically. Therefore, if you conjecture that they are present, then you're just throwing in something that's not in the show and never will be (or rather, it's exceedingly unlikely that it ever will be).

I almost liked the post until I saw "So she's cruel." I wouldn't call her cruel. She knows how to use tough love, more like, like Fluttershy sending off the breezies, much like how she forces Twilight and gang into situations for their own growth and good. Let me refer you to a thread I started on this topic: http://mlpforums.com/topic/106621-it-has-to-be-you/#entry2939236 And I'll just drop this here to speak for me: https://www.derpibooru.org/77936 That's just a fun little playful thing, trying to lighten the mood. I wouldn't call it trolling since she wasn't trying to aggravate someone else for her amusement. Just being playful

Yeah, I'm well enough. It's certainly been an adventure of sorts, my goodness @.@ I felt a bit like I wouldn't make it when I reacted negatively to the Lialda. That was intense. I'll try to lay off the TMI, though >.< As for the prednisone, I can't say I really have noticed much bad from it, myself. Only been on it for about 2 or 3 weeks, though, and I'll probably be starting Remicade or Humira soon, so it'll probably be a good month or two before I can start weaning off the prednisone. The flare-up seems to have made me more exhausted, but the prednisone makes me very awake in the mornings, so it's like my energy's been polarized a lot like Pinkie Pie, which is why I felt like making this thread I guess :/ Hehe. I honestly haven't noticed those things that much (mood swings, food craving). The whole flare-up has made it so there's too much crazy stuff going on at once, I'm not sure what's because of that and what's because of the stuff I'm taking for it. I don't see why Pinkie would be on it, though. It's not something you take forever and she certainly doesn't seem to have UC or have had it flare up recently

Arg. Sorry to hear. Round face? How long have you been going on it? My case wasn't actually that bad until I took Lialda; I discovered I'm in the lucky 5% of the populace or so that responds terribly to that stuff (It made it go from a moderate case to a very, very severe one). Currently talking to doctors about other options. Heheh, I guess I didn't come off as clearly as I'd hoped. I'm not suggesting Pinkie's on Prednisone, I'm just saying it's kind of interesting to experience life in a similar way that she seems to; big bounces of energy with exhaustion hitting in-between.

Well, I just thought this was interesting. Normally it seems to us a big mystery how Pinkie has so much energy. We all know the Pink pone's wild antics and how she's always bouncing and bubbling. Where does she get it from? From some recent experience, I don't think she actually has more energy than most ponies, shockingly enough, I just think she uses her energy differently. Recently I got diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, and in the course of treatment, one of the things you take for that is prednisone, which has a side effect that makes you feel pumped and motivated, but you don't actually get more energy. It's led to this last week or so being very interesting. I wake up, I'm exhausted, but then I shoot out of bed, and I feel like I can tackle the day. I'm somewhat tired, but at the same time I have so much energy I find it hard to sit still. I really feel like I have enough energy and drive to complete a tremendous amount in the day. But it's not long-lasting. I don't usually go six hours before I feel like I want to flop back somewhere and sleep again - having spent those whole six hours with so much energy it's hard to focus. The net result is I actually have a serious problem with fatigue - although for a few hours I felt I could take on the world, most of the time I'm too exhausted to get anything done productively. And interestingly enough, being really tired (your eyes want to close, mind doesn't want to work) but having lots of energy at the same time (your legs bounce and are eager to prance around) results in a mindset a lot like Pinkie's as well. Lots of silliness. I just thought this was an interesting little insightful experience into what it's like to live in Pinkie Pie's body. Energetic, bouncing on top of the day; Source Then, after a full days' of "Too Many Pinkie Pies" drama, her friends ask her if she wants to go do stuff, but there's only one thing she's up to doing: (May I note, she also did this on the train in the mystery episode as well) I just thought this was an interesting little experience on what it's like to be Pinkie Pie. Live hard, play hard, sleep hard.