How old was Shining Armor when Twilight was born?

[Luigi 7,868]

This may be a pretty wild speculation, and we might never know the answer, but basically, how much older do you think S.A. is than Twilight Sparkle? 

[Truffles 2,033]

That's a good question. The only thing we have to go off of right now from the show is the BBBFF song. She doesn't have her mark yet so she is very young in those scenes. He looks at least 5 years older than Twilight there but it could even be as much as 10 years difference since around the middle it appears he's starting his training with the royal guard when he salutes her.

I'm basing this off of him looking younger than adult Twilight in those scenes so he's still a teenager and young Twilight is likely 5 or less, hence the 5 to 10 years age difference depending on when ponies can start military training in their world.

[cmarston1 5,951]

I am just going to assume that he is 5 years older than Twilight.

[ggg-2 3,550]

2 hours ago, Truffles said:

That's a good question. The only thing we have to go off of right now from the show is the BBBFF song. She doesn't have her mark yet so she is very young in those scenes. He looks at least 5 years older than Twilight there but it could even be as much as 10 years difference since around the middle it appears he's starting his training with the royal guard when he salutes her.

I'm basing this off of him looking younger than adult Twilight in those scenes so he's still a teenager and young Twilight is likely 5 or less, hence the 5 to 10 years age difference depending on when ponies can start military training in their world.

i don't think he had started his training yet. Just judging by his facial expression when he was saluting, he was just playfully imitating his heroes, as young people are known to do, especially around a younger family member, Twilight in this case, in order to entertain them.

[Truffles 2,033]

6 hours ago, ggg-2 said:

i don't think he had started his training yet. Just judging by his facial expression when he was saluting, he was just playfully imitating his heroes, as young people are known to do, especially around a younger family member, Twilight in this case, in order to entertain them.

It could well be, and that thought had occurred to me as well. I figured the scene was symbolic of SA going off to military school at that point to train as a guard and that's why we didn't see or hear from him much until the end of S2.

One other thing I noted is his young form isn't spindly like you see with some of the teenagers in the show like past Fluttershy and present Snails. I don't know if it's because SA simply didn't go through that phase or if these flashback scenes are before or after such a phase. We need a flashback episode in the vein of "Where the Apple Lies" for TS, SA, and Spike to fill our their years as youngsters together.

[The Nth Doctor 652]

If Twilight is in her early by the time she goes to Ponyville back in Season 1, I think Shining Armor would be in his early thirties

I like to think he's at least 7-8 years older than her