Do you guys think there was another civilization before ponykind?

[Lemon Slices 358]

Well guys, I have a good question now.

 

   I was thinking "Ponies do fundamental things for nature, such as sun and moon raising and stuff." But have you ever thought the time period before ponykind? Kinda "Which civilization used to keep nature working before ponies?". I have three theories:

 

First: There wasn't another magician civilization before ponies. Nature was darky and anarchic.

 

Second: There was another magician civilization before ponies. They kept nature working well, but for some reason(not mentioned in the show), and unknown for everypony, they just leave or something like that.

 

Third: Nature, before ponies, ever worked well, and maybe there was a moment (after pony civilization begins) there it stopped, and ponies were chosen for this task using their magic.

 

So... That's what I've got, let's read your opinions.

[Cloud Yeller 69]

Nature works fine without the ponies.  Clouds form, rain falls, plants grow, sun/moon rise and set.  The ponies only take up a very small area of the world.  Most of the world is still unknown to them.  No one in Ponyville knew what a Zebra was before Zecora showed up.  No pony other than Daring Do has been to their version of South America.  Their not controlling nature on a global scale.  They can control things locally though.  

 

Earth Ponies try to control nature like a human would through muscle power and ingenuity.  

 

Pegasi have the natural ability to move the clouds so they can control the amount of rain/sun Ponyville and the surrounding farmlands get.  

 

Alicorns like Celestia and Luna can force the sun/moon to rise sooner or later but its not necessary.  Otherwise those two would have to constantly fly around the world pull the sun and moon to the rest of equestria.  

 

Unicorns don't really use their magic to control nature as each one is really only to use magic that is related to their cutie mark/special talent.  Rarity can make clothing with her magic but she can't teleport, transmute objects or enslave minds.  Twilight was special as a unicorn as her special talent was Magic itself so she could do anything with the right spell knowledge.

[Lemon Slices 358]

Nature works fine without the ponies.  Clouds form, rain falls, plants grow, sun/moon rise and set.  The ponies only take up a very small area of the world.  Most of the world is still unknown to them.  No one in Ponyville knew what a Zebra was before Zecora showed up.  No pony other than Daring Do has been to their version of South America.  Their not controlling nature on a global scale.  They can control things locally though.  

 

Earth Ponies try to control nature like a human would through muscle power and ingenuity.  

 

Pegasi have the natural ability to move the clouds so they can control the amount of rain/sun Ponyville and the surrounding farmlands get.  

 

Alicorns like Celestia and Luna can force the sun/moon to rise sooner or later but its not necessary.  Otherwise those two would have to constantly fly around the world pull the sun and moon to the rest of equestria.  

 

Unicorns don't really use their magic to control nature as each one is really only to use magic that is related to their cutie mark/special talent.  Rarity can make clothing with her magic but she can't teleport, transmute objects or enslave minds.  Twilight was special as a unicorn as her special talent was Magic itself so she could do anything with the right spell knowledge.

Wow! That was a good point.

Seriously, I've thought nature depended of ponykind on the cartoon. But do you have some citations[in the cartoon] about what did you wrote? That would help me (and your argument too) a lot.

And I saw something in your answer that is kinda wrong(not offense): "Otherwise those two would have to constantly fly around the world pull the sun and moon to the rest of equestria. " What? Moving sun and moon all around Equestria is Celestia and Luna's task. You can see that in the beginning of the first chapter of the 1st season. They do not move them toward a specific point or area.

Edited September 30, 2014 by DragonBornBR34

[Fhaolan 4,468]

I always liked the idea that the world was not habitable until the ponies showed up. That this is all a big terraforming job set up so long ago that nopony remembers it anymore. The job being done now, and the ponies are carrying through the motions, not realizing that it doesn't need them.

 

Evidence:

 

Folklore specifies that only Earth Ponies can grow food, meaning that once upon a time all wild plants were in some way toxic.

 

The ponies are still frightened by natural weather, as if at one point wild weather was considered dangerous.

 

The ponies demonstrate that they have exceptional control over seasons, weather, and a sun and a moon that appear to be satellites of similar size and distance from the world, rather than what we have here.

 

Several creatures in the world have a completely different metabolisms, either able to live off of aluminum silicate (Dragons, Diamond Dogs, Basilisks, Rockodiles, all supposedly living off of gems and other rocks), or off of emotional and/or magical energy (Windigos and now Sirens.) These would either be the actual natives of the world, or other travelers from alternative ecosystems.

 

Every incarnation of the MLP, from G1 on up to and including G4, all specify that the ponies came from 'somewhere else'. At no point have the ponies actually been native to the areas they are living. And this migration always took place long enough ago that supposedly nobody living remembers except as folklore and mythology.

[Silverhoof 2,839]

This sounds like the plot to Planet of the Apes.

 

Megan finds her way into Equestria where she is hounded like an alien. After a struggle she is freed by the intellectual Twilight, and escapes along a beach into the Forbidden Zone.

 

Twilight turns to Celestia (who had been trying to kill Megan the talking human).

"What will she find in there, Princess?"

Celestria sighed. "Her destinty..."

 

Megan travels for days and suddenly stops aghast. "No. I'm not on another world. I'm...home."

The camera pans back and we see the ruined Statue of Liberty.

"You finally did it! You blew it all to heck!" Megan pounds her fist into the sand.

The audience gasps at the surprise ending,

Fade to black. Roll credits for "Planet of the Ponies."

[Buck Testa 5,503]

Wow! That was a good point.

Seriously, I've thought nature depended of ponykind on the cartoon. But do you have some citations[in the cartoon] about what did you wrote? That would help me (and your argument too) a lot.

And I saw something in your answer that is kinda wrong(not offense): "Otherwise those two would have to constantly fly around the world pull the sun and moon to the rest of equestria. " What? Moving sun and moon all around Equestria is Celestia and Luna's task. You can see that in the beginning of the first chapter of the 1st season. They do not move them toward a specific point or area.

I thought the same way actually. However the Everfree forest and other areas not populated with ponies show that weather there works just fine in its "wild" state. What goes on in ponyville and other populated areas is that the weather is Tamed and regulated, probably to optimize crop growth or convienence.

 

As for another civilization before pony... It could happen but what would be the purpose of it? Establishing another big bad from Celestias glory days of whoopin flank and finding creative ways to imprison said flank? Saying pony made x die out? Those do not seem interesting.

 

However I am interested on their version of Aztec culture after daring don't. It may be a clue on how ponies came to control celestial bodies.

[Lemon Slices 358]

I thought the same way actually. However the Everfree forest and other areas not populated with ponies show that weather there works just fine in its "wild" state. What goes on in ponyville and other populated areas is that the weather is Tamed and regulated, probably to optimize crop growth or convienence.

 

As for another civilization before pony... It could happen but what would be the purpose of it? Establishing another big bad from Celestias glory days of whoopin flank and finding creative ways to imprison said flank? Saying pony made x die out? Those do not seem interesting.

 

However I am interested on their version of Aztec culture after daring don't. It may be a clue on how ponies came to control celestial bodies.

This was a good viewpoint too.

In fact, like you've wrote, ponies control nature to make world more habitable. This comproves part of the first theory.

The second paragraph rejects second theory.

Yeah, that looks like you defend first theory. Am I right?

[Freewave 1,145]

Of course there was a civilization before ponies, HUMANS

 

Think of it, why else are they called earth ponies and share so many characteristics with human civilization?  Why are so many geographical locations named after human locations? (Trottingham, Saddle Arabia, Fillydelphia) Long after humans doomed themselves and died out the intelligent pony races came after, taking some of what they learned from the past with them. Only creatures like Discord, Luna, and Celestia who know of the long past know the truth. 

 

War + Technology < Magic + Peace = Evolution

 

Edited October 1, 2014 by Freewave

[Cloud Yeller 69]

Wow! That was a good point.

Seriously, I've thought nature depended of ponykind on the cartoon. But do you have some citations[in the cartoon] about what did you wrote? That would help me (and your argument too) a lot.

And I saw something in your answer that is kinda wrong(not offense): "Otherwise those two would have to constantly fly around the world pull the sun and moon to the rest of equestria. " What? Moving sun and moon all around Equestria is Celestia and Luna's task. You can see that in the beginning of the first chapter of the 1st season. They do not move them toward a specific point or area.

I'd have to rewatch every episode to get my citations right. (not that that would't be fun) But I don't have that ready right now.  This was based on what I could remember.  I could be wrong about Celestia/Luna's powers but I'm pretty sure I'm right about the extent the rest of the pony race has on the world.

[Lemon Slices 358]

I'd have to rewatch every episode to get my citations right. (not that that would't be fun) But I don't have that ready right now.  This was based on what I could remember.  I could be wrong about Celestia/Luna's powers but I'm pretty sure I'm right about the extent the rest of the pony race has on the world.

I have no haste. My opinion about astral bodies raising is resting in the firstest episode.

Of course there was a civilization before ponies, HUMANS

 

Think of it, why else are they called earth ponies and share so many characteristics with human civilization?  Why are so many geographical locations named after human locations? (Trottingham, Saddle Arabia, Fillydelphia) Long after humans doomed themselves and died out the intelligent pony races came after, taking some of what they learned from the past with them. Only creatures like Discord, Luna, and Celestia who know of the long past know the truth. 

 

War + Technology < Magic + Peace = Evolution

 

Is this fan fiction or something else? I do respect your opinion, but like I wrote to Cloud Yeller, I need probe. Until Hasbro and all stuff solve all the mysteries (and I bet they wouldn't), we can't affirm nothing else. And about writing that humans went before ponies, just answer my question: "And the portal to human world?". This is an heavy point.

...

[PS: If you were kidding, that was a good one.]

[Freewave 1,145]

I have no haste. My opinion about astral bodies raising is resting in the firstest episode.

Is this fan fiction or something else? I do respect your opinion, but like I wrote to Cloud Yeller, I need probe. Until Hasbro and all stuff solve all the mysteries (and I bet they wouldn't), we can't affirm nothing else. And about writing that humans went before ponies, just answer my question: "And the portal to human world?". This is an heavy point.

...

[PS: If you were kidding, that was a good one.]

 

Well I know that premise is revealed midway in the epic fanfiction (human in equestria) Diaries of a Madman and I wouldn't be too surprised if that plot device was used somewhere else. Hasbro i'm sure won't broach the subject, hence fimfiction stepping in.

[AlbaTross 1,581]

I think it is implied that ponies exist on earth, sometime way in the future. At least the Nightmare Rarity arc in the comics kind of implied it. That, or Heather Nuhfer couldn't think of another name to call a planet that looks like earth.

 

So, maybe we destroyed the environment to the point where magical ponies are needed to maintain things. Perhaps that would mean we co-existed briefly with sentient anthropomorphic ponies as their civilization developed enough that they could conceive of a way to maintain the natural order of things.

[DoubleRainbow_Dash 317]

There were these stupid creatures called humans, they're all dead now. Ponies became the master race. The end.

[Commissar Alexer 763]

I mostly imagine that their world was once a human colony that was founded during the age of dark technology but was cut off at the begin of the age of strife.

The colony had a high percantage of pysker who experimented on nature and their domestic animals (horses..) but something went wrong and they all got wiped out.

 

And so the equestrians live their lifes in peace and isolation until the imperium finds them...

 

Ahhhh...i love to mix MLP and W40K.

[Lemon Slices 358]

Really...

I cannot beat your opinons anymore...

I think we've got a final conclusion.

[Nova12 53]

NOTE: I started writing this about fifteen minutes ago, so sorry if I contest any recent replies.

 

Very interesting discussion.

 

All the previous replies have good ideas, but I have my own personal two theories:

 

1. Equestria was first created not as a planet, but as a huge chunk of rock floating through space. This became a problem when the organisms living on the asteroid began evolving into sentience. Equestria only slowly orbited the sun, requiring the ponies to "wrap up" the seasons. It did not rotate, requiring Celestia to latch onto the sun with her magic and spin the planet accordingly. It eventually caught another asteroid in it's gravitational pull, adopting it as its "moon." The rock was too far away to orbit properly, so Luna (who was born later) needed to guide it's rotation around the planet.

 

2. Equestria was once named Earth, and populated by humans. The human race eventually doomed their own species and planet in a huge nuclear war, somehow scarring it so badly it halted its rotation and orbit, and effecting the moon as well. But soon a new species rose out of the dirt, evolved from horses and adapted to human lifestyle. The leftover radiation from the colossal nuclear war would explain the horrifying mutants that devour rocks and minerals, the use of "magic," and the grotesque hybrids of completely different species. The ponies' habitation of Earth would explain their obsession with human culture: Their sayings, their houses, and completely illogical teacup design.

 

UPDATE: Regarding recent evidence, I am also beginning to speculate that ponies are actually aliens, either to Equestria or Earth.

 

For those contesting the "Planet of the Ponies" theory for EG reasons, I believe the portal was not to the human world, nor the pony one, but a crude crossover of both. I mean, seriously: In our world, there are no weird technicolor pony-people, there's no one named Sunset Shimmer or Rainbow Dash, and don't you think the bronies would have noticed if the humanizations of their favorite TV show characters were walking among us? Also, the news would have noticed an inter-dimentional portal and a high school being destroyed by demons.

 

Case closed.

 

(P.S. I also have a theory that it's just a kid's show about magical talking horses, and it doesn't need any logic to be enjoyable. But I know it would be suicide to state this among True Bronies.)

Edited October 3, 2014 by pinklover12

[NotoriousSMALL 1,984]

I read a fan fiction about that. But to answer the question, I believe the world was far more primal and savage back then (not chaos, tho), like a world-spanning everfree forest kinda. But with more plants with teeth.

Like in season 4 premiere, sorta, and then things changed and after a while the ponies showed up 

Edited October 3, 2014 by NotoriousSMALL

[Lemon Slices 358]

pinklover12, thanks for dedicating so much in my topic. That actually resumes days and days of arguing. Both theories would work.

I read a fan fiction about that. But to answer the question, I believe the world was far more primal and savage back then (not chaos, tho), like a world-spanning everfree forest kinda. But with more plants with teeth.

Like in season 4 premiere, sorta, and then things changed and after a while the ponies showed up 

NotoriousSMALL, could you write, in this topic, that fanfic's title? That can be useful, like, showing the opinion of a MLP-dedicated writer.

[NotoriousSMALL 1,984]

pinklover12, thanks for dedicating so much in my topic. That actually resumes days and days of arguing. Both theories would work.

NotoriousSMALL, could you write, in this topic, that fanfic's title? That can be useful, like, showing the opinion of a MLP-dedicated writer.

Yeah I would if I could remember it. That was last year. I just went and looked for it and couldn't find it. Deer OCs hiding in the everfree were the main characters and they tried to take back equestria from the ponies is all the info I can give you.

[Lemon Slices 358]

Yeah I would if I could remember it. That was last year. I just went and looked for it and couldn't find it. Deer OCs hiding in the everfree were the main characters and they tried to take back equestria from the ponies is all the info I can give you.

Ah, would be nice if you knew, but is okay. There's no problem at all. So you defend the first theory? Nice. This is a good viewpoint that wasn't discussed well as the other two.

I think it is implied that ponies exist on earth, sometime way in the future. At least the Nightmare Rarity arc in the comics kind of implied it. That, or Heather Nuhfer couldn't think of another name to call a planet that looks like earth.

 

So, maybe we destroyed the environment to the point where magical ponies are needed to maintain things. Perhaps that would mean we co-existed briefly with sentient anthropomorphic ponies as their civilization developed enough that they could conceive of a way to maintain the natural order of things.

This comproves second theory, right?

[NotoriousSMALL 1,984]

Ah, would be nice if you knew, but is okay. There's no problem at all. So you defend the first theory? Nice. This is a good viewpoint that wasn't discussed well as the other two.

This comproves second theory, right?

Yeah I imagined it started out like a lot of people think the world started out, and then ponies coming along as the first sentient creatures who swiftly became dominant 

[Lemon Slices 358]

Yeah I imagined it started out like a lot of people think the world started out, and then ponies coming along as the first sentient creatures who swiftly became dominant 

Okay, however, do you think the world was insupportable, or uncomfortable, before ponykind?

[HereComesTom 2,232]

In my headcanon, the land worked naturally, a lot the same way Everfree Forest did, up until DisQord came along.  Then his chaotic magic screwed up nature so badly in so many different ways---animals' instincts were so confused, they couldn't take care of themselves.  Clouds, instead of being thousands of feet in the air, were only a few dozen feet in the air.  A magical dome covered the sky which absorbed light from the sun, moon, and stars, and shone it down on the land however DisQord saw fit, creating the illusion of the sun and moon moving quickly through the sky and changing day to night randomly.

 

After Celestia and Luna defeated DisQord, they had to completely reorganize nature as well as society.  Celestia cast a spell on the pegasi, allowing them and their descendants to move clouds as if they were solid objects, and charging them with maintaining the weather to maximize food output.  Earth ponies she charged with caring for the animals (so that the ecosystem wouldn't collapse) and growing food.  Unicorns she cast a spell on as well, so that every time they used their magic for anything, the inherently chaotic magic that was flowing through the land would be soothed.

 

The defenses of Everfree Province that kept Celestia's castle safe prevented DisQord's chaotic magic from affecting nature there, so animals and the weather still took care of themselves in Everfree.  For a while, Celestia was happy to live there, since the land was normal, from her perspective.  But after Celestia banished Luna to the moon, she was so heartbroken that she moved to Canterlot with her aunt, her only remaining family, and she decided to let Everfree Province go back to nature, since Everfree Province was the only place where nature (as she knew it) could exist.

 

...I know there are a couple small inconsistencies with the show with this, but I have ideas for how to get around those...and this post is already too long!

[The Boulder 121]

Long ago, a group of humans colonized a faraway planet in a last ditch attempt to save themselves and the life that inhabited their homeworld from certain destruction. These colonists planned to live a simpler life than that of their ancestors, apart from the pollution, greed, and warfare that had engulfed their beloved, but war-torn Earth... A place where they could be free forever.

 

But... (The rest of my theory is in the spoiler, I just thought it'd take up to much space.)

 

 

shortly after their arrival, these colonists discovered that their was something odd about this world...The Sun and Moon rose and fell at odd patterns and intervals. Plants brought from Earth did not fare well in the soil, and stood frozen in time without human encouragement to grow. The clouds were stagnant in the sky, and did not move.

And there was this strange feeling when people walked in the streets of their small town of Everfree...as if their was something unnatural, yet warm and friendly about their new home.

 

The effects of this aura were most prevalent in the Earthly wildlife that was brought and domesticated on board the ship. Animals had always been able to sense things that humans couldn't back on Earth, like the coming of a storm, or the presence of another human. Now not only could they sense it, some could even tell us about it!!! The animals, most notably the ones with hooves, were showing brain growth unlike anything ever seen! The brains of horses, for instance, were developing to almost half the capacity of a human's! Other animals, though they couldn't speak, began to understand spoken word, and became increasingly reliant on humans for support. Some of the unlucky ones did not survive the transplantation into the environment, dying, and morphing into strange and fearsome monsters not unlike those in human mythology.

 

While these discoveries amazed and shocked the colonists, things were not well in the town of Everfree. Initial efforts towards agriculture had failed. Most citizens agreed that this had something to do with the mysterious aura they had been feeling since they first landed. The ships food stocks had depleted to 75% in little under a month after the colonists were awoken from stasis. Fearing death and desperate for a solution, the colonists decided to move the animals away from Everfree and into the wild, hoping they would take the mysterious aura with them!

 

And it worked!!! The aura dissipated, and the lands around Everfree became not unlike those of Earth, farmable by human hands, and even came with a bonus: it was ridiculously fertile. Within a few hours of planting their food, farmers returned to their fields to find fully grown crops! Everfree howled in celebration. But the party was short lived.

The next day, when the colonists arose, they found the land overflowing with crops! Only they were no longer crops! They were great trees full of vines and ferns coated the floor. It was as if thousands of years of evolution had occurred overnight, growing and adapting, so that their reproductive structures that humans called fruit, could no longer be picked so easily! Apple trees bore fruit too colorful for humans to look upon without going blind! Venus flytraps had broken from the laboratory and were spraying colonists with foul gasses! The dangerous mythological animals were the only ones to return, lurking in the shadows of this new jungle.

 

The colonists had had enough! They took to their ship en mass and abandoned the stone ruins of their town at the heart of the thicket. All two brothers. One was a young zoologist named Scorpan, who had cared for the animals and watched them develop. The other was the colony's lead scientist, Tirek. Both believed that the key to survival on this world lay in the hooves of the half-sentient animals, who they assumed to have become adapted to living beyond the Everfree perimeter (two fillies, one white, and one who had turned a dark shade of blue, had shown especially impressive cognitive skills in Scorpan's studies). Only they could understand how to live in harmony with this mysterious aura... this... this magic that ruled the world. Tirek even believed he could find a way to morph himself, along with his brother, into one of these creatures, the same way he had observed the creation of a mythical-esque monster, in his lab.

 

And so the ship departed, in search of another world in which to live in peace, while Tirek and Scorpan faced the challenge of retaining their sanity in the horrors of the Everfree Forest.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 3, 2014 by The Boulder

[AlbaTross 1,581]

Ah, would be nice if you knew, but is okay. There's no problem at all. So you defend the first theory? Nice. This is a good viewpoint that wasn't discussed well as the other two.

This comproves second theory, right?

I guess it does. Give me enough time to catch up on past gens, and I could probably find a way to work them all into that theory. As it stands, I could probably work both the G1 series and Pony Tales into it no problem.