Where does the sun rise in Equestria?

[Lonstecation 526]

As we all know, in the real universe, the earth spins around from west to east, while the sun is stationary. This creates the illusion that the sun is actually moving, or in other words, it's rising and setting. And because of the earth rotation, it seems that the sun is always rising in east and setting in west.

However, in the pony universe, the sunrise and sunset have nothing to do with earth rotation. In fact, Princess Celestia is responsible for the sunrise and sunset. She has full control over the sun.

 

 

But something just doesn’t seem right. Celestia has been raising the sun for thousands of years. And by now, she should have her own rules about where the sun should rise and set.

This creates some inconsistency. Because I’ve seen and studied carefully all episodes of MLP, and noticed that the sun doesn’t always rise and set at the same points in the sky. I will show a few exemples, but first, we need to take a look at the Equestria map.

 

 

Now that we have this map, we can refer to the cardinal points like this: north means towards the Crystal Empire, south means towards Mount Aris, west means towards the Smokey Mountains and east means towards Manehattan and Griffonstone. However, because we will mostly talk about the cardinal points only by looking from a Ponyville view, we will also need some closer points to refer to the cardinal points. So now, let’s also take a look at the Ponyville map.

 

 

According to this map, north means towards Canterlot and Twilight’s castle, south-west means towards Sweet Apple Acres and south-east means towards the Everfree Forest.

Now let’s have some exemples of inconsistent sunrise!

 

 

 

These are two screenshots of an event from The Cutie Mark Chronicles. In these screenshots, Applejack lives in a building in Manehattan, and she’s looking through a window. This window has a perfect view of Ponyville. But what else do we notice here? The sun is rising in that direction!

Now let’s recreate this whole event on the Equestria map!

 

 

As you can see on this map, Applejack’s face indicates that Applejack lives in Manehattan. The red arrow indicates Applejack’s view through the window, and the sun with the yellow arrow indicates that the sun is rising in that direction. Notice how Ponyville is on the left and Manehattan is on the right, or in other words, Ponyville is in west and Manehattan is in east. What does this mean? It means that the sun is rising in west in this case.

Is it fair to assume that this is the main law in Equestria and that the sun always rises in west? Well no, because this is just one exemple. One exemple isn’t enough for a satisfying conclusion. Therefore, let’s have another exemple!

 

 

This is a screenshot of an event from The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000. This screenshot has a view of Ponyville, and Canterlot in the background. What else does this screenshot have? Sunrise, of course!

Now let’s recreate this event on the map!

 

 

The camera with the red arrow indicates the view of Ponyville. The sun with the yellow arrow indicates that the sun is rising in that direction. As you can see, the sun is rising in the Canterlot direction. And because Canterlot is in north, this means that the sun is rising in north in this case.

So now, we have two exemples: an exemple where the sun rises in west, and one where the sun rises in north. This creates inconsistency! And because Celestia is responsible for the sun movement, this means Celestia doesn’t always raise the sun in the same direction.

So, what do you, guys, think? Do you think Celestia follows specific rules for where to raise the sun? (for exemple, Monday – north, Tuesday – south, Wednesday – west etc.) Or do you think it’s completely random? Do you think Celestia always tries to raise the sun in a specific direction, but sometimes fails, or do you think Celestia is always meant to raise it in a specific direction, but the animators often make a mistake with the sunrise view? What other ideas do you have? Let your thoughts down below. If you have anything to add, feel free to add it. If there is something you didn’t understand, something I overlooked, or if I made a mistake somewhere, let me know about it! Say anything you have to say!

 

[Mothra 640]

If we're talking about an in-universe explanation, I think it's random and she makes the rules up as she goes along. She even warns Twilight in the movie about how you should never raise the sun and the moon at the same time, yet in the episode Horse Play she raises the sun at night, just for dramatic effect. She raises it behind a stage which I think is next to the friendship school? It's been a while since I've watched the episode, so I can't help out much with the direction it's coming from, sorry.

Edited August 27, 2022 by Mothra

[J.J 923]

Here's what I'm gonna say, We see the sun changing it's location and we see sometime day to night progressions, but we are "left to believe" that once Celestia "raises the sun" then she can just go on about her princess duties and her day until it is time to set the sun, but we see sunsets throughout the show? We see plotlines that take place throughout the show where we progress from day to evening, or it just starts and is suggested the passing of time... With the Celestia/Luna logic, the raising and setting and changing from day to night should be INSTANT, how can the sun keep moving if Celestia is out and about or doing royal duties? Is she changing it's location every now and then throughout the day? They don't elaborate on that and it may be one of her responsibilities, but also more importantly, in S4 finale when Twilight says "The sun should be up by now" and realizes it is currently her responsibility to do this as she has all the alicorn magic to lower the moon and raise the sun.. this insinuates there is a concrete schedule to the sun's rising but pay closer attention and we see Twilight raise the sun and moon accidently at the same time, similar to how we see The Storm King effortlessly move the Sun with the same alicorn magic, the bigger question is, other than for natural reasons, does Equestrian gravity even work? Bc it definitely seems that it would be worth exploring the life of CREATURES not just ponies in Equestria and their reliance on the LITERAL SUN, all these creatures should worship Celestia honestly, not want a war with her? After Tirek takes the magic how's he gonna raise the sun? Celestia can't raise it for him without her magic? How is Chrysalis not gonna have the sun? Do changelings not need the sun? Cozy Glow should know better she's a damn pony, but I guess one that wants to doom everypony to certain death, via famine, sickness and other natural causes that can't even be remedied normally without magic bc the entire ecosystem is afflicted and eventually ponies are unable to grow or mix anything that helps them sustain a healthy life style.. how did she think she'd keep everyone in check in a world where there isn't even a pony that can manage the CRITICAL responsibility of providing your worlds trees with sunlight... You know your planets source of oxygen...? And to much is bad as well... Idk I'm getting off topic but you know what I was saying lol

[Mothra 640]

18 minutes ago, KingCorvus said:

After Tirek takes the magic how's he gonna raise the sun? Celestia can't raise it for him without her magic?

I think before Celestia it was Starswirl and other sorcerers, so you could argue that with them and Twilight also being able to raise the sun that either certain powerful villains could too, or find someone who could do it that they trust, but that's such a huge stretch and I think you're right. These bad guys always have bad plans

[Fhaolan 4,483]

There are several episodes that refer to the planet they are on being round, and that they are in a solar system of some kind. I believe, though I am having trouble finding the screenshots, that the diagrams that Twilight had on her wall during one of those episodes, that the planet Equestria is on is *not* the center of that system. However, this can still all work, with the Sun and Moon moving around the planet, because it's possible the Sun Celestia is moving around is not the center of the system either.

Basically, in the early episodes of MLP:FiM it is heavily implied that the natural weather and ecology of the planet is... hostile to pony life. That the reason Earth Ponies grow the food is because they can't eat what grows wild, and that Pegasi control the weather because 'wild weather' is dangerous. And in every incarnation of MLP, the ponies come from somewhere else. They are *never* native to wherever the show is set.

Another thing that is fascinating is that the Moon, when it is in phase, has stars shining *through* the dark area. The moon is not a full sphere in MLP with it's phases determined by the planet blocking sunlight from the sun. It is a crescent naturally, and as a 3D object the phases of the moon seem to be from it rotating relative to Equestria.

This all seems to indicate that the ponies are in the last phases of a terraforming effort, changing the planet to suit themselves. To that end the Sun is likely another 'artificial' satellite under the control of Celestia's magic (and massed unicorns before that), because the 'real' sun, the center of the system, is too cold & too far away to be useful. Likely appearing as just a particularly large star (or just vaguely brightens things up a bit, not true 'daylight' as we are used to.) As such, sufficiently strong magic can move both the Sun and Moon to wherever they need to be as they are not bound to fixed orbits.

So my question from all this is... what is the Moon actually *for*? If it's an artificial satellite like the Sun, and the Sun is to provide the light/heat needed for this terraforming effort, what does this object, shaped like a focusing antenna *do*, and why is it only deployed at night in various orientations, opposite of the Sun?

Another interesting thing, is that the Crystal Ponies appear to be an old alternative path of terraforming where the ponies were attempting to change *themselves* to better suit the 'natural' environment, so they can eat the organic crystals that are presented as 'gems' (that grow underground, so they do not require the sunlight pony-type plants do), the same way Dragons can. Maud, at least, seems to have inherited some of those Crystal Pony mods from some distant ancestor before the Crystal Empire was vanished.

[J.J 923]

58 minutes ago, Mothra said:

I think before Celestia it was Starswirl and other sorcerers, so you could argue that with them and Twilight also being able to raise the sun that either certain powerful villains could too, or find someone who could do it that they trust, but that's such a huge stretch and I think you're right. These bad guys always have bad plans

I mean yeah we get to briefly see the Storm King manipulate the sun and moons location, but this is still technically with Alicorn power, and it is put into a magic item working as a medium in kind of a similar way that Grogars bell does, and maybe the villains could have used this bell like Pinkie did to briefly acquire Discords magic..to instead acquire Alicorn magic, and use it to restructure the world, but harnessing this alicorn magic seems essential to maintaining order through out Equestria and beyond, you can't just absorb it to get mad gainz, or literally get rid of it altogether? Discord we know can live without the sun or moon, which is funny bc we see ponies can still exist physically in the chaos dimension, so that only raises other questions to whether or not if life in Equestria in some other alternative way could prosper in the future in a way that wouldn't make any sense to me and honestly is just my overanalyzing and creating headcanon by attaching human logic to a show about magical talking ponies lol. STILL, we know in FiM they have paid attention to many small details, so why not question every detail...?

Edited August 27, 2022 by KingCorvus

[Lonstecation 526]

1 hour ago, Mothra said:

If we're talking about an in-universe explanation, I think it's random and she makes the rules up as she goes along. She even warns Twilight in the movie about how you should never raise the sun and the moon at the same time, yet in the episode Horse Play she raises the sun at night, just for dramatic effect. She raises it behind a stage which I think is next to the friendship school? It's been a while since I've watched the episode, so I can't help out much with the direction it's coming from, sorry.

Fair point. I also noticed how Celestia refuses to raise the sun where Twilight tells her in the movie, but raises it in the middle of the night during the play a few episodes later. This means not only there’s inconsistency, but Celestia’s logic about the sun is completely broken! Therefore, fair point!

1 hour ago, KingCorvus said:

Here's what I'm gonna say, We see the sun changing it's location and we see sometime day to night progressions, but we are "left to believe" that once Celestia "raises the sun" then she can just go on about her princess duties and her day until it is time to set the sun, but we see sunsets throughout the show? We see plotlines that take place throughout the show where we progress from day to evening, or it just starts and is suggested the passing of time... With the Celestia/Luna logic, the raising and setting and changing from day to night should be INSTANT, how can the sun keep moving if Celestia is out and about or doing royal duties? Is she changing it's location every now and then throughout the day? They don't elaborate on that and it may be one of her responsibilities, but also more importantly, in S4 finale when Twilight says "The sun should be up by now" and realizes it is currently her responsibility to do this as she has all the alicorn magic to lower the moon and raise the sun.. this insinuates there is a concrete schedule to the sun's rising but pay closer attention and we see Twilight raise the sun and moon accidently at the same time, similar to how we see The Storm King effortlessly move the Sun with the same alicorn magic, the bigger question is, other than for natural reasons, does Equestrian gravity even work? Bc it definitely seems that it would be worth exploring the life of CREATURES not just ponies in Equestria and their reliance on the LITERAL SUN, all these creatures should worship Celestia honestly, not want a war with her? After Tirek takes the magic how's he gonna raise the sun? Celestia can't raise it for him without her magic? How is Chrysalis not gonna have the sun? Do changelings not need the sun? Cozy Glow should know better she's a damn pony, but I guess one that wants to doom everypony to certain death, via famine, sickness and other natural causes that can't even be remedied normally without magic bc the entire ecosystem is afflicted and eventually ponies are unable to grow or mix anything that helps them sustain a healthy life style.. how did she think she'd keep everyone in check in a world where there isn't even a pony that can manage the CRITICAL responsibility of providing your worlds trees with sunlight... You know your planets source of oxygen...? And to much is bad as well... Idk I'm getting off topic but you know what I was saying lol

Yeah, what you’re saying makes perfect sense. And you just showed that the logic of stealing magic is way more broken than I thought. For exemple, if Twilight struggled so much with the sun in the season 4 finale, how can the Storm King move it so easily on the sky? Also, what was Cozy Glow even thinking? Draining up all the magic is a stupid idea if magic is used to keep Equestria alive for as long as possible. Without magic, Equestria won’t survive for too long. And actually, now that I think about it, there is one more thing that doesn’t make sense: during the season 8 finale, if most of the magic was already drained up by the time the Mane Six got out from Tartarus, how is it possible that the sun and the moon can still be controlled? Apparently, the logic of stealing magic makes no sense, but I didn’t notice it until you pointed that out. Therefore, thanks for your response, you really have a fair point too!

42 minutes ago, Fhaolan said:

There are several episodes that refer to the planet they are on being round, and that they are in a solar system of some kind. I believe, though I am having trouble finding the screenshots, that the diagrams that Twilight had on her wall during one of those episodes, that the planet Equestria is on is *not* the center of that system. However, this can still all work, with the Sun and Moon moving around the planet, because it's possible the Sun Celestia is moving around is not the center of the system either.

Basically, in the early episodes of MLP:FiM it is heavily implied that the natural weather and ecology of the planet is... hostile to pony life. That the reason Earth Ponies grow the food is because they can't eat what grows wild, and that Pegasi control the weather because 'wild weather' is dangerous. And in every incarnation of MLP, the ponies come from somewhere else. They are *never* native to wherever the show is set.

Another thing that is fascinating is that the Moon, when it is in phase, has stars shining *through* the dark area. The moon is not a full sphere in MLP with it's phases determined by the planet blocking sunlight from the sun. It is a crescent naturally, and as a 3D object the phases of the moon seem to be from it rotating relative to Equestria.

This all seems to indicate that the ponies are in the last phases of a terraforming effort, changing the planet to suit themselves. To that end the Sun is likely another 'artificial' satellite under the control of Celestia's magic (and massed unicorns before that), because the 'real' sun, the center of the system, is too cold & too far away to be useful. Likely appearing as just a particularly large star (or just vaguely brightens things up a bit, not true 'daylight' as we are used to.) As such, sufficiently strong magic can move both the Sun and Moon to wherever they need to be as they are not bound to fixed orbits.

So my question from all this is... what is the Moon actually *for*? If it's an artificial satellite like the Sun, and the Sun is to provide the light/heat needed for this terraforming effort, what does this object, shaped like a focusing antenna *do*, and why is it only deployed at night in various orientations, opposite of the Sun?

Another interesting thing, is that the Crystal Ponies appear to be an old alternative path of terraforming where the ponies were attempting to change *themselves* to better suit the 'natural' environment, so they can eat the organic crystals that are presented as 'gems' (that grow underground, so they do not require the sunlight pony-type plants do), the same way Dragons can. Maud, at least, seems to have inherited some of those Crystal Pony mods from some distant ancestor before the Crystal Empire was vanished.

I also like your thoughts! Especially the ones about the moon, and the one about the crystal ponies! I also think I remember seeing a theory on the internet that Maud Pie might be related to dragons. In fact, she did eat that white transparent rock in the Maud Pie episode. But she might also be related to the crystal ponies in a way. So, yeah!

[Fhaolan 4,483]

14 minutes ago, LCpony417 said:

I also like your thoughts! Especially the ones about the moon, and the one about the crystal ponies! I also think I remember seeing a theory on the internet that Maud Pie might be related to dragons. In fact, she did eat that white transparent rock in the Maud Pie episode. But she might also be related to the crystal ponies in a way. So, yeah!

Part of this theory of terraforming is the idea that whoever set this in motion was *so* far back in time that the current ponies have no memories or records of it. The Sun and Moon were likely in proper fixed orbits at first, but like all artificial satellites they aren't perfect and these orbits require maintenance. The increasing amount of power (unicorn magic) needed to do that maintenance would be due to the unicorns, over millennia, loosing the knowledge of exactly why they were doing what they doing, making assumptions and creating mysticism to replace the missing knowledge and needing to pour more and more power into just keeping it all going. By the time Celestia came along, an alicorn specifically set up with enough specialist magic to move the Sun willy-nilly, the entire *idea* of those objects having fixed orbits would be gone.

Obviously, by the time of G5, and the tech upgrades we see in the new shows, at least some of the knowledge was rediscovered and the Sun and Moon put back into fixed orbits (probably by Twilight). Otherwise they wouldn't have day/night cycles without magic.

[Mothra 640]

38 minutes ago, Fhaolan said:

Obviously, by the time of G5, and the tech upgrades we see in the new shows, at least some of the knowledge was rediscovered and the Sun and Moon put back into fixed orbits (probably by Twilight). Otherwise they wouldn't have day/night cycles without magic.

I didn't even think about how it would effect G5, but now that you mention it even in the older generations had some weird stuff going on with the sun, like the sunstone in G1. I guess if you consider it one big timeline (which I don't but idk what the canon is between generations) you could say how the sun works just changes, or is able to be manipulated in multiple ways

Edited August 27, 2022 by Mothra

[SharpWit 2,656]

Two possible explanations and a piece if advice.

1. The farther away you live from the equator, the more dramatic the shift of where the sun and moon appears to rise and fall, throughout the year. This is because of the angle of the earth. Their "Earth" could be at an entirely different angle, making this even more pronounced.

2. The sun orbits their earth both Latitudinally and Longitudinally. So every day it goes around, but also moves slightly up or down. This would cause it rise in the east for half of the year, and the west in the other, but also find itself doing so from either pole at some point.

Advice: I loved making maps and keeping track of such minute details as these, but the writers and animators are going to make a shot look the way they want and not pay that much attention to continuity. I had just finished a detailed map of Equestria when they made the official release. They shared a good number of similarities, but there were probably just as many differences. It's one of those things where you'll think you've found a path towards perfection, only to find a dead end every time.

[Lonstecation 526]

27 minutes ago, Mothra said:

I didn't even think about how it would effect G5, but now that you mention it even in the older generations had some weird stuff going on with the sun, like the sunstone in G1. I guess if you consider it one big timeline (which I don't but idk what the canon is between generations) you could say how the sun works just changes, or is able to be manipulated in multiple ways

You’re right! Although I don’t know anything about other generations besides FiM, I do know that laws and logic seems to be different between generations. This would make it difficult to put all generations in one big timeline. For this reason, I like to think that each MLP generation happened in different parallel universes, not all in the same universe. And if we take the FiM generation as one individual universe, then it would make more sense for the sun or other things to have different properties. This wouldn’t make sense if the entire MLP series happened in one universe. But still, everyone believes in their own headcanons, right?

25 minutes ago, SharpWit said:

Two possible explanations and a piece if advice.

1. The farther away you live from the equator, the more dramatic the shift of where the sun and moon appears to rise and fall, throughout the year. This is because of the angle of the earth. Their "Earth" could be at an entirely different angle, making this even more pronounced.

2. The sun orbits their earth both Latitudinally and Longitudinally. So every day it goes around, but also moves slightly up or down. This would cause it rise in the east for half of the year, and the west in the other, but also find itself doing so from either pole at some point.

Advice: I loved making maps and keeping track of such minute details as these, but the writers and animators are going to make a shot look the way they want and not pay that much attention to continuity. I had just finished a detailed map of Equestria when they made the official release. They shared a good number of similarities, but there were probably just as many differences. It's one of those things where you'll think you've found a path towards perfection, only to find a dead end every time.

 1. Awesome theory! I didn’t think about the sun position looking different depending on where in the world are you looking at it from. And this theory would make sense in any way as long as the sun placement on the sky is just an illusion.

2. I also like this theory! Perhaps the sun rises from different points throughout the year. I didn’t actually think about that either!

3. Oh yeah, I also had similar experiences, where I try to make a fan-made sketch of something only to find out that either someone else has already done better than me, or even there’s an official release of that sketch. When that happens, it feels kinda sad, and sometimes embarrasing. You feel like you want to throw your own sketch on the window. It’s also interesting how this thing happens to so many people. I thought I was the only one to experience such things. But yeah!

[Lonstecation 526]

4 hours ago, WinterS said:

@LCpony417 @Fhaolan

Looking at this, is something I never considered. It seems like the Sun and the Moon here are not real celestial bodies as we know them, but rather artificial constructs of mana-magical energy. I would argue that the ponies themselves, along with other life on Equestria is not native and that long ago, they arrived on the planet that drifts alone in space without any star to orbit, or any natural satellites. 

There are a ton of inconsistencies with the writing, but I prefer the idea that the system here is geocentric and that the Sun and Moon are not like ours, and are in fact, artificial, likely created by the first alicorns that arrived. It appears to me like the ponies themselves, are also likely altered form what their original forms were, prior to arrival on this world.

This would also solve why we do not know much before a few thousand years - because there is no history of the world, before the ponies and others arrived from some other world. It appears that this fact is lost to time (probably due to inconsistent writing). 

-------------------

In a fanfic story I am reading, there was an interesting situation of how the world came to be. Part of this is just my interpretation of this story. 

So basically, the world is neither round nor flat. It's an...Arc, and the whole entire world itself was built as a machine by the collaboration of ancient ponies and several other species, the world was once a part of this massive cylindrical construct in space, millions of miles in size, hundreds of thousands of miles across called Urohringr. It contained other smaller cylinders inside of it, each having livable land, oceans, cities, etc on both sides of the surfaces, and it completely and utterly dwarfs our world in size.

Dozens of thousands of years ago, a horrific event called the Sundering occured, and a 'shard' broke off the greater whole. It tumbled into space, surrounded by chaotic energies. The Sundered Plain wandered the stars for centuries, if not millenia. The alicorns came from the edge of the Universe, and saw the suffering and dying ponies and used genetic modification to create the three species as we know them today. Originally the ponies were just one species, with double hearts, enlarged ribcages, prehensile tails, and 6 legs. The extra pair of legs, contained an enlarged pair of wings that was much larger than Pegasi, for these ponies were able to fly without magic, unlike modern pegasi. Their hooves would be at the very end of these wings, and when they'd walk, their wings would fold like an aeroplane wing and rest at their side, and the shapes of their heads were also slightly different. 

The world, at least the side that Equestria is on, gives the impression of a Convex planet due to the curvature of the horizon (boats sink bottom first and all), and the Alicorns chose that side to illuminate with the Sun and Moon to mimic the natural conditions of a spherical planet, but on the 'dark' side where there is no sun and moon, one can see the horizon curving upward. Also by the way when it comes to this, the Sun and Moon themselves are accompanied by a third force, a 'harmonic blanket' which blankets the world in harmonic energy, and as one reaches the edge, this ends, and one can see the universe and stars completely unimpeded. 

This is fascinsting! I never thought about how did Equestria came to be! After all, it's not like Equestria is just like our world - created by God, who spent 6 days working and 1 day resting. No, Equestria is different. But I never thought of how did everything in Equestria came to be, and how is it that ponies themselves can control natural things (for exemple, pegasi can control the weather). I always found it very funny-looking, yet creative at the same time. But never thought what causes these habits. And your theory just covered that with a fascinsting story! Wow!

It's a shame that this is just a headcanon, not an official explanation or an explanation that is 100% possible. But still, it is fascinating!

[Lonstecation 526]

9 hours ago, WinterS said:

@LCpony417

I strongly disagree with this. The Earth is around 4.6 billion years old and was formed from a protoplanetary disk from around the sun. That aside, I am not at all religious.

As for other things, I wish they explained it a lot more in the show itself, although that's a double edged sword and we could have gotten something that was unliked.

 

1. IDK what your religion is, but just letting you know, I am an orthodox. And according to my orthodox religion, God spent 6 days creating the world and 1 day resting. Your religion might say different, but at least this is what I've been taught at school.

2. You're right. I also wish the show had more official explanations about things. But then we would have a cartoon about ponies and magic turn into a documentary of scientific explanations about pony logic, which wouldn't be fun. But still, there are some things in the show that don't make enough sense without an official explanation.

[Lonstecation 526]

57 minutes ago, WinterS said:

@LCpony417

I don't follow any religion or believe in anything of a religious nature. I follow what is proven to be true by empirical analysis. 

I wouldn't mind such a thing, but still, the show really suffered from bad writing and lack of explanation from things. I liked the concepts, but they really needed to build upon it more. 

1. I also tend to believe in science more than in religion. But I live in a country where religion is also very important. Therefore, I must believe both in religion and in what is proven with science. Not to mention that religion is also something that I'm being taught at school.

I'm not asking you to do the same as me, I'm just letting you know what things look like from my perspective.

2. I agree! I only noticed this year how this show is full of mistakes. I am surprised how I haven't noticed all these mistakes in the show when I used to watch it as a kid, but now I see that the writing is sometimes bad and poorly explained. What I mean by this is that not only the show has a lot of animation errors, but also poor writing and logic that sometimes doesn't make sense. But that doesn't really bother me! A show doesn't have to be flawless for me to like it. As long as I enjoy it regardless, nopony has the rights to make me dislike the show.

[Lonstecation 526]

1 hour ago, WinterS said:

@LCpony417

That's alright, I just would suggest you to believe in something because you believe it, not so much your surroundings. Believe what you wish, it's no issue to me, as long as that you aren't believing in something out of peer pressure or anything like that. I believe in coming to independent conclusions.

 

I need to rewatch the show at some point in the future. I still haven't seen a lot of it due to procrastination and other obligations. Here is something interesting. 

1. Thank you for the advice! I think I already believe in what I consider believable myself. But if my logic of believing in things leads me into believing what others want me to believe, then I guess I have no other choice. For exemple, if I believe in science, and someone wants to make me believe in a specific theory by proving it for me through science, then I have to believe it. Still, thanks for your advice!

2. Oh yeah, you're right! I also really should watch the show again soon! Because I haven't watched MLP in a while. The last time I watched an MLP episode, it was in the middle of July this year. I have planned to rewatch the show during my incoming year of school (I'm starting the 10th grade), so I think this is good.

Also, the fourteenth moon thing seems very fascinating! But we're already getting off-topic with it, so let's just skip that thing for now and stay in this topic, shall we?

[Splashee 28,564]

@LCpony417 and @WinterS

The show Friendship is Magic doesn't try to promote any religion. Let's leave it at that.

Discussing religion and faith are not really suited for this forum section, even if it is civilized. Think about Friendship is Magic as a show for anyone, no matter the background. If there is an answer to this question about where the sun is being raised, it needs to be within the rules of the show.

[Lonstecation 526]

15 minutes ago, Splashee said:

@LCpony417 and @WinterS

The show Friendship is Magic doesn't try to promote any religion. Let's leave it at that.

Discussing religion and faith are not really suited for this forum section, even if it is civilized. Think about Friendship is Magic as a show for anyone, no matter the background. If there is an answer to this question about where the sun is being raised, it needs to be within the rules of the show.

You're right. The topic of religion is closed anyway, so we're not talking about it anymore. For now on, we're only talking about FiM. And because my topic is about the question of where does the sun rise, we will just continue talking about this theory.

Basically, other additional topics, like religion and stuff, were going to close anyways, but thank you for putting a barrier to close them all sooner. Alright, now about that sun theory...

[Lonstecation 526]

2 minutes ago, WinterS said:

I wonder if the Sun in MLP has solar flares, or is it just a mana-sphere with a solid surface?

Good point! But in my opinion, the sun can be anything as long as it's an object that can be controlled with enough unicorn/alicorn magic.

[Sir Hugsalot 9,348]

I believe that first thing to think about is what kind of the world is Equestria? Well, personally I'd be inclined to see it in similar way the world from Tolkien's legendarium is - flat (at least initially). Stars are different thing than our planets. Sun and moon, while serving somewhat same purpose there as they do for us - are different objects too. Of course this leaves certain holes that beg for answers, but that would require venturing too much into "what ifs" and excessively expand the post. 

With that estabilished (and I apologize is I am inconsistent with lore as I am yet to finish MLP) I'd like to point out that before Luna and Celestia first defeated Discord the world was a complete, chaotic mess. Nothing made sense, everything was a joke, inconsistent and physics themselves were just another toy of Discord. Only as he fell Equestria as we know it begun to take shape.

Celestia and Luna essentially took reigns of the most basic foundation of the world - Sun and Moon, effectively giving the life a consistent rhythm, letting it flourish. I dare say maybe they even created those. Ponies maintain the ecosystem - weather, seasons allowing life period of growth and period of rest. Chaos gets severly limited giving the necesarry order - just enough for Equestria to become a vibrant and healthy realm. 

And here's the point - ultimately sun and moon is controlled by ponies. However powerful they both are - they're ponies. That can lead to inconsistencies as to where both sun and moon may rise, when they rise or how they behave on the sky. Given differences between Equestria and Earth - those differences don't bring drastic consequences that such events would cause for us here. They're mostly... visual. Ultimately plants receive their sunrays. There's light, until we start nitpicking everything is at it should be in natural order of things despite said inconsistencies.

They rise at what can be considered edge of the world in my opinion. Where it's at or how it looks like - I do not know, I only know it must be set very far away from where any events from the show took place. Below the world where they're at matters little as there's nothing else there. Shape wise - they must be some kind of spheres, but their specific structure remains unknown. But they're pony controlled just as the rest of Equestria is in no small part, hence, unlike in our universe - they're subjects to certain imperfections in behaviour.

I hope my post is not too excessive, I just have a lot of thoughts regarding this matter!

[Lonstecation 526]

24 minutes ago, Sir Spooksalot said:

I believe that first thing to think about is what kind of the world is Equestria? Well, personally I'd be inclined to see it in similar way the world from Tolkien's legendarium is - flat (at least initially). Stars are different thing than our planets. Sun and moon, while serving somewhat same purpose there as they do for us - are different objects too. Of course this leaves certain holes that beg for answers, but that would require venturing too much into "what ifs" and excessively expand the post. 

With that estabilished (and I apologize is I am inconsistent with lore as I am yet to finish MLP) I'd like to point out that before Luna and Celestia first defeated Discord the world was a complete, chaotic mess. Nothing made sense, everything was a joke, inconsistent and physics themselves were just another toy of Discord. Only as he fell Equestria as we know it begun to take shape.

Celestia and Luna essentially took reigns of the most basic foundation of the world - Sun and Moon, effectively giving the life a consistent rhythm, letting it flourish. I dare say maybe they even created those. Ponies maintain the ecosystem - weather, seasons allowing life period of growth and period of rest. Chaos gets severly limited giving the necesarry order - just enough for Equestria to become a vibrant and healthy realm. 

And here's the point - ultimately sun and moon is controlled by ponies. However powerful they both are - they're ponies. That can lead to inconsistencies as to where both sun and moon may rise, when they rise or how they behave on the sky. Given differences between Equestria and Earth - those differences don't bring drastic consequences that such events would cause for us here. They're mostly... visual. Ultimately plants receive their sunrays. There's light, until we start nitpicking everything is at it should be in natural order of things despite said inconsistencies.

They rise at what can be considered edge of the world in my opinion. Where it's at or how it looks like - I do not know, I only know it must be set very far away from where any events from the show took place. Below the world where they're at matters little as there's nothing else there. Shape wise - they must be some kind of spheres, but their specific structure remains unknown. But they're pony controlled just as the rest of Equestria is in no small part, hence, unlike in our universe - they're subjects to certain imperfections in behaviour.

I hope my post is not too excessive, I just have a lot of thoughts regarding this matter!

Don't worry about your post being too excessive. I respect any kind of ideas, opinions, theories and thoughts regarding to this matter. And yours seem very interesting!

To begin with, I never though Celestia and Luna might be the ones who created the sun and the moon. But now that I think about it, it might also be the reason why they are the ones controlling them. So yeah, it's a good idea!

However, I don't like to think that Equestria was first ruled by Discord before the two princesses defeated him. Actually, now that I think about it, I don't even know what happened before Discord's defeat. I don't even know how Discord came to life. But in my opinion, there was peace in Equestria until Discord created chaos all over it, and then he got defeated by the two princesses. In other words, Equestria wasn't created by Discord only to be a chaotic world. Sure, it's possible that Discord might have created Equestria, but I don't like to think that. And since there is no official statements on what happened before Discord's defeat, this is how I believe things happened. Of course, I might be wrong, but this is what I think.

And despite inconsistencies being perfectly normal in Equestria without breaking any sort of logic or something, I still like to wonder why the ponies have chosen things to work the way they work. Basically, it's not like I'm not thankful with these things because I think they don't make sense. I'm just wondering why the ponies made these decisions.

This is pretty much all I have to commentate. Other than that, I respect your thoughts!

[Sir Hugsalot 9,348]

17 hours ago, LCpony417 said:

Don't worry about your post being too excessive. I respect any kind of ideas, opinions, theories and thoughts regarding to this matter. And yours seem very interesting!

To begin with, I never though Celestia and Luna might be the ones who created the sun and the moon. But now that I think about it, it might also be the reason why they are the ones controlling them. So yeah, it's a good idea!

However, I don't like to think that Equestria was first ruled by Discord before the two princesses defeated him. Actually, now that I think about it, I don't even know what happened before Discord's defeat. I don't even know how Discord came to life. But in my opinion, there was peace in Equestria until Discord created chaos all over it, and then he got defeated by the two princesses. In other words, Equestria wasn't created by Discord only to be a chaotic world. Sure, it's possible that Discord might have created Equestria, but I don't like to think that. And since there is no official statements on what happened before Discord's defeat, this is how I believe things happened. Of course, I might be wrong, but this is what I think.

And despite inconsistencies being perfectly normal in Equestria without breaking any sort of logic or something, I still like to wonder why the ponies have chosen things to work the way they work. Basically, it's not like I'm not thankful with these things because I think they don't make sense. I'm just wondering why the ponies made these decisions.

This is pretty much all I have to commentate. Other than that, I respect your thoughts!

You actually make some strong points, to which I happen to have yet another theory, one, that assumes that Equestria was in similar shape before Discord that it came to be after it was defeated. 

Maybe those inconsistencies are  consequences of him tampering with natural order of the world? Like, we saw how excessive the chaos was, maybe Celestia and Luna simply haven't fixed Equestria completely yet and what we see is a work in progress? Before the world sustained and controlled itself, but now ponies have to supervise many of its natural processes so that it can "learn" its own properties again? I think that could also explain, why in generation 5 these little things seem to be gone - the world simply managed to put itself back in order so pony intervention was no longer necesarry and eventually became forgotten by ponies themselves. 

I don't believe Discord created Equestria. One case would mean he was made along with it and simply seized control quickly being the most powerful entity at the time. The other that he somehow came to be later (maybe his race was more common in the past?) and took Equestria over as You suggested. 

That's the fun of MLP actually. We know very little. The target audience is still one that doesn't require excessive details so now we can enjoy debating these 

Thank You for Your thoughts as well! 

[Lonstecation 526]

5 hours ago, Sir Spooksalot said:

You actually make some strong points, to which I happen to have yet another theory, one, that assumes that Equestria was in similar shape before Discord that it came to be after it was defeated. 

Maybe those inconsistencies are  consequences of him tampering with natural order of the world? Like, we saw how excessive the chaos was, maybe Celestia and Luna simply haven't fixed Equestria completely yet and what we see is a work in progress? Before the world sustained and controlled itself, but now ponies have to supervise many of its natural processes so that it can "learn" its own properties again? I think that could also explain, why in generation 5 these little things seem to be gone - the world simply managed to put itself back in order so pony intervention was no longer necesarry and eventually became forgotten by ponies themselves. 

I don't believe Discord created Equestria. One case would mean he was made along with it and simply seized control quickly being the most powerful entity at the time. The other that he somehow came to be later (maybe his race was more common in the past?) and took Equestria over as You suggested. 

That's the fun of MLP actually. We know very little. The target audience is still one that doesn't require excessive details so now we can enjoy debating these 

Thank You for Your thoughts as well! 

You're welcome!

You know? I also came up with another theory recently: a theory that says that when Discord was defeated by the two princesses, some of his chaotic magic remained in Equestria, and led into animation errors (like that cyclop pony from S1E26, or the ponies sometimes having incorrect cutie marks). Of course, these animation errors are caused by the animation program and have nothing to do with the logic of the story. But still, I like to think that these animation errors might be caused by Discord's magic that didn't get removed when he was defeated back then.

Hey, you know? This would make for a very good thread!

But still, it's also a good idea that Discord's chaotic magic that wasn't completely removed also led into other problems, and not just into animation errors. Perhaps this is why the ponies control the weather and nature themselves - because they're trying to fix Discord's magic. So yeah, it's a good possibility!

[Splashee 28,564]

I'll have a quite simple answer to this question: Sun rises in East and sets in West. I am sure Equestria is a good representation of our world to follow these simple rules (without having to go into planets, orbits and Quantum Mechanics)

[Lonstecation 526]

19 minutes ago, Splashee said:

I'll have a quite simple answer to this question: Sun rises in East and sets in West. I am sure Equestria is a good representation of our world to follow these simple rules (without having to go into planets, orbits and Quantum Mechanics)

But the sun doesn't always follow these rules! It seems to be totally random!

[Splashee 28,564]

21 minutes ago, LCpony417 said:

But the sun doesn't always follow these rules! It seems to be totally random!

Lol, Quantum Mechanics then.

 

I think this has to do with different artists not thinking while making the show or the assets for the show. If we were to put logic into every single shadow cast by a character in FiM, to trace the "light source", would not only find that it is random, but also, it is quite hopelessly so to try to make sense of it.

 

And I don't think I got that last sentence right, but it is as broken as the sun's function in Equestria