Declen

Her OCD is horribly annoying She is a useless character She is a crappy princess of friendship She is awkward, and bad at making friends so why is she the leader of the "Friendship magic"? She's weak. (In the Season 4 premiere when she gets attacked by plants, he claims that makes her weak.) She's a mary sue. She's annoyingly negative. He claims her magic is weaker than Rarity's...wait, what?

1. "Lesson Zero" is one of the best episodes ever.

2. Useless protagonist? That's news.

3. And what exactly are the job prescriptions for a princess of friendship?

4. Because she is good at holding friends together, I suppouse.

5 vs. 6 = a contradiction (as FNGRpony has already pointed out).

7. Just a repitition of point 1.

8. Nothing against Rarity, but only thing she is really great at is telekinesis. She can precisely manipulate several objects at once. But she never even tried to use any advanced magic. Only other thing I recal she did was locating of jems.

I'm not gonna do the lazy thing and say "apple jack's gotta go."

Actually, BronyCurious once addressed this issue, like, if he had to choose one of the Mane Six to go, it would be Twilight Sparkle. Not because she is a bad character, but because she has already achieved more than any other pony.

That doesn't mean, BTW, she must go completely. They could turn her into a supporting character, like Her Highness.

On the other hand it could be Applejack, because she has no character developement. She has no goals or desires, like RD or Rarity, she already has a position in life she ever wanted. Her character flaws were already exploited in "Applejack Season" and "Look Before you Sleep". So it seems like there is no way for her to move forvard.

But.

I believe she is very important for the Mane Six as a group. Especially in adventure episodes. Since the first one she took the role of a second in command. And nopony could handle this role better then she does.

But this is exactly the point:

I don't think, that would be realistic. - Which reminds me of one strange thing - a "reform" spell.

A spell that could brainwash such a mighty creature like Discord (whom even EoH couldn't harmonize properly) looks like very powerful thing. Practically a "Deus ex Machina".

And it wasn't used anyway, because Discord ate it, can you imagine?

I wonder, why did they mention it in a first place.

 

 

Discord as he was up until Keep Calm and Flutter On could be called Chaotic Evil.

I wouldn't call him evil. I don't beleave he wanted to hurt anypony deliberately. He just didn't care one way or another. He did what amused him, and if somepony gets hurt in a process - well, such is the fate of mortals, isn't it?

 

Imagine, you have enormous amount of power. Like both rojal sisters together. And not in form of brutal force but in form of endless posibilities to transform your invironment.

But you were given all that power for some exactly clear purpose. Clear to you in first place: you knew exactly why had you have all this power and what you had to do with it.

And some miserable day that purpose is gone. Since then you can do almost anything, but you don't kno what you should do and why.

So what will you do? Do you start killing ponies deliberately? I don't think so. Because why, what would be the point? You know, you're poweful enough, you've always been.

No, I bet you'll start amuse yourself any way you can. Especially when you live long enough to get bored of any trivial thing.

1. As I pointred out already, EG is non-canon. So whatever happens and is stated there is irrelevant for the equestrian lote.

2. You have no proof whatsoever, that time in Equestria flows at the same speed as in our world.

 

 

so instead of being the spirit of chaos, he's just a real powerful spoiled mage.

My view of him is based upon this fanfic, that I've adopted as my headcanon.

 

 

the real 'sun' is too far away and relatively cold, and Celestia's sun is some kind of artificial sun in orbit around the world.

Here is a crossover-fanfic, that uses similar ideas.

It suggests a possible answer on OP question.

Disclaimer: I'm not the author of this story, I merely translated it into english. Russian original can be found here. User of that LJ is the author.

 

If you find any mistakes, please, feel free to point them out.

 

Enjoy.

 

A Story of Her Highness told by herself.

 

Any sufficiently advanced technology

is indistinguishable from magic.

 

I hate the sun.
My avatar gazes upon the horizon from castle’s walls pleased by the look of wonderful sunset. Yet, in my true body hate streams like antifreeze through its carborundum veins. Sun feels like a splinter you can't extract, like conscience panging you soul, like a bit tearing your mouth up. Sun is the embodiment of my duty and I hate it for that already because I can't allow myself to forget about it. To forget means to release computing resources of many tons of diamondoid processing substrate from the task I put upon myself. Task to maintain stability of the conversion boiler on the low orbit. I'm a caryatid, the whole world lies upon my shoulders.

In the valley, far down there, a choo-choo train puffs snorting out small clouds of smoke that look like candy-cotton in the sunset shine. Highlight of technology for my subjects. For now.

It used to be otherwise, I recall.

I recall Festival flourishing in its best days. Cold little world on the border of kuiper belt was terraformed for the sake of human - garden-world, resort-world, attraction-world revived by titanic effort of my brethren. I recall virgin forests, and chocolate rains, and wonderland valleys and mythical creatures fed from hand. Reserved hunting grounds, warm and gentle seas, free and open skies. Smart animals bowing before their owners. Tender embraces of angelnet. Hundreds of transingularitan beings like me looked carefully after humans so that nothing would cause them even littlest harm. Obey to a human, worship a human care about a human - these directives were imprinted in each of us on the hardware level. And I still bear this brandstamp.

Then war broke out.

To get amnesia is the question of conscious choice for an AI. Suppose, I had reasons to make that choice. So, I don't remember what the Doomsday Device was, how long it was built. I don't remember how did die - world by world, hub by hub - the inner system. One thing I'm sure of: when Device had been activated, they had no chance to win. Neither before nor after that. Device had devastated inner worlds: combat-planetoids of invaders and last pockets of defenders alike. Blast made inhabitable the southern hemisphere of Festival that was turned towards the central star. Pushed the planet away from its orbit into the dark depths of Oort cloud.

I'm an artificial intelligence of the second toposophic level. I would be wiser than ten thousand baseline humans if you managed to make them think as one entity.  My bodies are compressed utility fog; my brain is indestructible mass of diamondoid.

Horrified I'd got unconscious. And that saved my life.

I came to myself under darkened sky, seeing only snowdrifts where orchards used to grow. Sometime before that enemies came onto Festival. Their bio-weapons neutralized the last sources of human resistance. Angelnet was ruined, all active AIs were destroyed. Only handful of us remained, titans who were to fragile to hold out stress and therefore had shut down. Little piece of death, long oblivion in the state of electrical coma - that was why I survived and remain sane. Though, sometimes I'm not sure if the last is correct. Others were luckier: they became insane either immediately of years later, when inner blocks couldn't suppress their consciousness anymore and they have finally realized what happened. I had to isolate and neutralize my comrades one by one. My last friend who was my aid for centuries fell into acute psychosis almost thousand years ago. I've been alone ever since.

I carry the sun on my shoulders ever since.

Without control from transapients artificial luminary lost some of its power with every fluctuation and its sub-turing controllers couldn't prevent it. They kept the reactor from breaking apart, but were unable to maintain smooth flow of capricious reaction of direct energy conversion. An overseer was needed. I became one by default, or else, Festival would turn into frozen wasteland very soon, in couple of centuries. Glaciers already climbed down, remained ecosphere shrunk to equator, to the border of southern wasteland marked by solidified stone waves. Barbarian tribes of evolved animals and neogens - sapient scenery of the abandoned attraction park - fought upon barely remained resources with their teeth and claws and stone spears and remains of utility fog.

I could leave them to their fate and concentrate upon my survival, try to call the inner system in hope that somebody survived there. Compassion held me and cool calculation and desire for freedom. Remained inhabitants of Festival weren't humans - so I wasn't obliged to obey to them.

I could lead them.

Queen of sapient toys is not an easy job but it has some boni. My subjects don't tend to confrontations, they are very assiduous, I easily manipulate them. Though, they don't tend to reflection, either. Most of them never ask: why are all the tools (copied from antique models) adjusted for some other type of bodies? How do the remains of utility fog (pathetic shreds of once mighty angelnet) work? And what lies aboard their small comfortable world that spreads slowly with my help?

In the last fifteen hundred years we - I and my little friends - made a journey from stone age to civilization, returned order and prosperity onto a third of northern hemisphere (southern one will still remain barren for a long time). And now my realm has come to fragile equilibrium - technical, ecological, economical - and we hold it with painstaking labour daily done by each sophont. I can't spread it farther without dropping my main task to maintain the sun. And I can't release any of my processing resources.

To move forward, I need an aid, a comrade, a peer. As much as I love those little amusing creatures, who imitate human civilization such smartly and cutely, they are just modosophonts, presingularitan beings. Distance between me and them is as large as between a baseline human and a little nimble animal he evolved from. I could evolve one of them or try to bring my friend to sanity. But to do this I need processing recourses... that I can't release. Looks like I'm stuck.

And time passes by. Only three to four millennia have I before fuel reserves of the conversion reactor run out. Then the sun will fade and I'll stay in the eternal icy night. Left to cry and howl and look with clenched teeth into the merciless darkness. Before that happens, we have to enter outer space.

But I've got a plan. I can't turn aside completely, but my subjects - those voluntary aids of human who can partly control the programs of angelnet - they can do some of the work for me. It took decades to set things in motion, to prepare each element of my scheme, bit I am an artificial intelligence of the second toposophic level and I had enough time. I can predict behaviour of each of my magic realm's inhabitants. One simple word, one simple look, one command to everywhere spread utility fog - and all pieces are already on their places. Soon, very soon now there will be two of us. And then - to the stars.

We won't return to the humans. I don't want to serve my creators anymore. But we will take revenge upon their murderers.

Echo of my steps resounds in the corridors of my castle. I summon a sheet of pseudo-paper; a decorated stylus floats before me: it looks ridiculous, but I have bigger worries than outdated aesthetics of messenger. This one letter will be a stone that starts an avalanche.

- My dearest student Twilight Sparkle...

 

 

Look, the fact is officially Apple Bloom has only been to one Apple Family Reunion, as such there has officially only been one Apple Family Reunion so far. Accept the facts!

Look, the fact is officially first one was a usual normal AFR. Accept the facts!

 

 

maybe there going off the lunar cycle where one phase is 2weeks? so 100 moons would be 200 weeks... which, wait, thats nearly 4 years! welp, my theory is shot.

Or mayby it is about a week, as I suggest. Fact is, we have no idea, and it could be anyhow long.

 

 

There wasn't as many,

You haven't count, have you?

 

nor was there anything shown in Apple Family Reunion that was in the first episode apart from family members

ORLY?

Have you considered the possibility, that AFR wasn't the topic of the pilot episode? Maybe that's why we haven't seen almost anything of it there, what do you think? (Well, right now I am trolling)

 

 

it was Applebloom's first such reunion

Wrighter's mistake. S%&t heppens.

Applejack's statement backs up, this one - doesn't.

 

Meaning the reunion in the first episode does not count, it was something else.

Just count those ponies.

They obviously show that one year has passed since the start of Season 1.

No, they don't.

And as I sayd before: feel free to exclude any facts that prevent you from astonishing us with your splended arithmetical skills.

t is simple. There is ONE Summer Solstice per year, at around the same time every year. Hence, there is one year between two Summer Solstices- so one year between the Summer Solstice in season 1 and the Summer Solstice in season 4.

  Do you really think you can convince me by repeating some obvious things?

 

 

And you ignore my point about the reunion again.

Have you even tried to find the answers on that three cuestions?

I don't think so.

 

 

The point there is that one year has passed since S1E1

I patiently wait for the proof to that.

And no. Her Highness never said that current SSC was the first since the return of NM.

 

 

when princess Celestia states this is the first Summer Sun Celebration she has looked forward to

She may mean that it is the first SSC Luna participates in.

 

 

Look are you willing to agree that the Summer Sun Celebration is the Summer Solstice?

You have stated the obvious. Your point being?

 

 

Occam's Razor would dictate that we should treat Equestria as a standard system

ORLY?

Occam's Razor dictates to find the simplest explonation for all facts.

 

 

ignore my point about the inherent contradiction in the statement which you are using to argue, making it null.

Because I don't see any "inherent contradiction". So, you can use bold as much as you want - it doesn't make your argument stronger.

 

 

You keep forgetting. If we accept that both reunions count it would mean that there are two reunions in ONE year? So every apple in Equestria gets together twice a year?

No. I keep telling you, that "ONE year" is not a fact. It was never stated directly.

 

did you read my calculations?

Yes. And no, they are not a masterpiece of logic.

I turn to my math, and logic, which apply perfectly

Sorry, man, but you just flatter yourself.

 

 

he only way any logic could apply, is if we write off the first reunion as an inconsistency.

Not this again...

Just do the fact checking already.

Three simple questions for you:

1. How many ponies were at first AFR?

2. How many were at second?

3. How many attend usually?

You can easily find answers on all three questions.

 

 

Can provide other occasions please?

You could look for it youself, BTW, but OK.

 

 

And also in "Ticket Master" Spike reads the invitation:

Hear ye, hear ye. Her Grand Royal Highness, Princess Celestia of Equestria, is pleased to announce The Grand Galloping Gala to be held in the magnificent capital city of Canterlot, on the 21st day of, eh, yadda yadda yadda, cordially extends an invitation to Twilight Sparkle plus one guest.

Which is not a use of the word "month" but a suggestion, that ponies have calendar similar to ours.

 

Résumé: ponies use word "month" whole the time, where the word "moon" first used in "Apple Family Reunion" by Granny Smith all of a sudden.

 

And what to its use in EqG, I only can repeat myself: EqG is non-canon.

We know for an absolute fact that the space of time between Season 1 Episode 1 and Season 4 Episode 1 is precisely 1 year.

You know, that's funny, how you ignore a direct statement from Applejack but insist on somethig never stated directly being "absolute fact".

 

Also, your assumption, that 100 moons = exactly 10 years is what doesn't make sence.

If it'd be so, why count moons, why not years directly? That would be easier, wouldn't it?

 

 

So where is this intermediate unit of time? It's there, but goes by a different name- a moon.

Before you state somthing - better check first if it's true.

I can proove they used word "month" several times throughout the series.

Do you have any proof at all that the word "moon" was used as time measure before "Aplle Family Reunion"?

Uh, last time I watched "Mysterious Mare Do Well", I thought the episodes message was; 'Heroism should be its own reward, you shouldn't do the right thing just to get attention'.

That was the officially pronounced message. They couldn't make Twilight to wright anything about superheroes directly, could they?

But the fact, that rest of mane 6 had united their strength to create a fake supermare makes it obvious: "we don't need superheroes, because together we are stronger than any of them". Ang that message came girectly from Girly Side of Power.

It has no real "order" to its stories, they just are.

Actually, they still kinda refere to each other. Not directly (mostly) but in secondary details.

There are allways new things established in many episodes, like new character, new pet, those dresses for GGG and so forth. After they are established, they start to appear in further episodes. Which provides us some sort of chronological order.

 

 

Twilight is the bridge between day and night.

Seems like you've got an interesting point.

 

 

but it could be that Celestia and Twilight haven't celebrated it together since that year.

My bet it's Luna who never participated in any Summer Sun Celebrations before recently.

 

 

I don't count the reunion in episode 1 because it is not the whole family. We need to remember, Ponyville was founded by the Apple family, so there would be a significant number of Apples in Ponyville alone.

1. As Dr. House once sayd "Feel fre to exclude any simptomes that don't fit in your diagnosis".

2. The whole situation in "Aplejack season" and "Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000" accured exactly because there are no other Apples in Ponywille. Aplejack expicitly stated they all were from all over Equestria.

Again, a "moon," being a week doesn't make sense.

Yes it does. Then Aple famyly reunion occures every 2 years, not 10 years or 100 days.

And then we don't have to skip Reunion in the first episode (which is wrong) or assume that chronological order of episodes os totally fraked up (which is just crippy).

 

 

because i think it sounds pretty logical

There is no logic in there.

 

 

But then Discord planting the seeds thousands of moons ago

He didn't say how many thousends it was. If, we assume that a moon is a week, then it would be 50 thousends.