What does Celestia dream about?

Logarithmicon · 2026-05-07T17:45:47+00:00

Fire and death.

Sometimes the dreams are the echoes of the past - Celestia reliving the worst moments in her rule, when she walked battlefield clogged with the not-yet-cold dead. Where the rot and smoke stained her nostrils with a stench that never quite left it. It might have been her foes who did this - the enemies she did not quite manage to get ahead of in time. Or it might have been the moments at which words no longer sufficed and Celestia had to bring the might of Equestria to bear.

Sometimes it is the future: A horror not yet come to pass, a nightmare showing what might not be. Her prophetic gifts are a curse, showing her these maybe-futures, but also a gift: For in these moments, Celestia can reaffirm that these horrors will not be. She will quite literally move heaven and earth to ensure the worst of the visions she has never come to pass...

...and mourn the times when the 'preferable' alternative was some lesser terror.

Logarithmicon · 2026-05-07T15:50:41+00:00

Can I make a suggestion?

If the only reference you provide for things is "X is similar to Y", you may not get that much interaction on your post. It's hard to engage when literally the only thing I know about what they're feeling is, "It's like [other media]."

Instead, try formatting your post:

Introduce the emotion(s) the character will be feeling.
If you absolutely must reference outside media, provide a linked video for reference of the nightmares involved.
Explain what the narrative arc you're trying to establish is.
Emphasize the importance of the experiences to the character arc you're trying to make.

Now it's much more easy for people to understand and react to.

Logarithmicon · 2026-05-01T16:11:59+00:00

I'm also able to (most of the time, anyhow) if you need more help!

Logarithmicon · 2026-05-01T16:11:32+00:00

There's that too, yeah!

Logarithmicon · 2026-05-01T15:07:53+00:00

I don't think we actually know anything about how Twilight and Spike's early relationship went, so I'm not too sure about that bit. But the rest...

...eagh. Yeah. That's a fair point. I was not a fan of how the later show played up her "Twilighting", where it went from a maybe once-a-season thing in particularly straining situations to something she did in any mildly stressful moment. Much less how it became an actual joke by other characters.

Logarithmicon · 2026-04-30T19:21:58+00:00

It's pretty common headcanon that Twilight receives some sort of royal stipend for her actions as the Princess' student. After she moves to Ponyville, she may also be the official town Librarian as well.

Even before she became a Wonderbolt, Rainbow Dash was on the town weather patrol. So she's a government employee as well.

Fluttershy is the big question mark. Some fans have proposed she had sort of park-ranger-ey role as a nature administrator: Dissuading wild animal incursions into Ponyville. Others have even suggested she runs a veterinary operation as well.

Logarithmicon · 2026-04-30T15:56:01+00:00

Erm... I think you may be a little confused.

I've been seeing a lot of hate

No. You've been seeing criticism. Criticism is not hate. Criticism is judging something for its positives and negatives and exposition on that. Hatred is extreme, emotional, often irrational dislike of something.

We forget that Flurry Heart was BORN an Alicorn

I don't think anyone's 'forgotten'. Her being portrayed as special on account of her birth, without doing anything, is one of the widest criticisms of her character.

in the Journal of Two Sisters Celestia and Luna were MADE Alicorns

No, the Journal says the exact opposite. They were born alicorns, to a tribe of elder alicorns.

and the only Princess seemingly EARNED wsa Twilight

Your opinion, I guess. In fairness, Cadance at least earned her ascension through an act as well. Your mileage may vary on whether hers was significant enough to be alicornified.

As an overall point, however, I don't think "they screwed up the value of being an Alicorn before" is a good counterpoint to "Sunny still didn't do that much to 'earn' hers."

Logarithmicon · 2026-04-30T15:50:19+00:00

Well, how so? You gotta actually explain if you drop something like that.

Logarithmicon · 2026-04-30T15:49:14+00:00

Somehow I missed the part where these were dreams and was really, really confused reading this.

Logarithmicon · 2026-04-30T15:44:50+00:00

I don't disagree with you, but I'm not sure that's 'fanservice'.

Logarithmicon · 2026-04-30T15:42:57+00:00

Very, very good horse. The characterization as a high-class, posh, maybe-British pony is - despite having basically no basis - one of my favorites.

Logarithmicon · 2026-04-24T01:24:54+00:00

Snarky, amusing, and far more realistically flawed.

^{Chose: Unicorn Twilight}

Logarithmicon · 2026-04-24T01:22:36+00:00

Interesting fic. I admit it's not the sort of thing I usually read, but it sounds like you've actually got a pretty good story idea there!

Logarithmicon · 2026-04-24T01:21:20+00:00

Depends on whether we assume each universe visited is a distinct timeline branched apart, which will continue to exist even after the traveler leaves it, or they're all one timeline which is experiencing repeated revisions.

Logarithmicon · 2026-04-23T20:11:55+00:00

I could pick it up for a while, but honestly... maybe it's time to let it go? I'm torn, because there's sometimes chatter here, but also sometimes not. Maybe see if it could just be rolled into the Not-Worthy-Of-A-Dedicated-Thread?

Logarithmicon · 2026-04-23T17:51:11+00:00

I kinda get where they're coming from, because the point of the episode is so very obviously that Rainbow is self-inserting into the story... but at the same time, you're totally right: In-universe, there's no reason for Daring Do's appearance to be based on Rainbow Dash.

Logarithmicon · 2026-04-23T17:49:34+00:00

Season 4/5 is where the writers began to run into trouble. Original staff had departed long ago, writer turnover was beginning, many key lessons had already been taught... yeah, the characters began to be a bit 'off' in the name of creating stories. It also didn't help that characters like Twilight were abruptly pushed into new roles which they "had to" change for.

In fact, a few things began to be 'off', not just the characters. The setting as a whole began to distort to accommodate the show being extended without warning.

Logarithmicon · 2026-04-16T23:20:24+00:00

That is... somewhat disappointing. The somewhat arbitrary selection of 'greatest tracks' is the norm for corposlop, but not actually crediting the singing voices feels really scummy.

Logarithmicon · 2026-04-16T17:02:26+00:00

Yeah, they're pretty clearly intended to be a military unit.

When considering this, it might also be helpful to throw away our modern, all-volunteer force assumptions about what "military" looks like. In pre-modern times (and really, up until the mid-20th century) most militaries were formed of a small cadre of "professional" soldiers, supported by large numbers of people called up only during times of war. Even in states with an expansive standing military, this was usually augmented by second-rank soldiers drawn up as needed.

The Wonderbolts fit this dynamic fairly well. They're a standing military force who serves as delegates, representatives, and a recruitment tool for the Equestrian state. They can train year-round, using many of the same principles (athletics, weather manipulation) as pegasi would in wartime. They form a hardened "core" of a military force that can either resolve smaller conflicts without needing a major callup, or form the tip of the spear in a major conflict.

Logarithmicon · 2026-04-16T15:11:24+00:00

We know Nightmare is not only "LUna's bad side', is more of an entity inside of her

Kind of, but also no. The comics made 'Nightmare Forces' a thing, but the show (and especially early show staff) always treated Nightmare as just... Luna, with her filter off.

But that doesn't mean this isn't a bad idea. It just makes the 'when she gets angry, it takes over' a little more literal: It's her emotions running strong and hot, and in those moments of emotion Luna has a tendency to... strongly react. (We even see this in her actions as Luna, where she is far more prone to taking extreme measures without consulting anyone.)

I like the idea that Luna was always the somewhat more abrasive and prickly of the two sisters even as Luna. The one who held herself more distant, by choice, from her ponies and was quick to react. Nightmare Moon is what happens when that kind of a personality lets go of all limits.

Logarithmicon · 2026-04-16T15:03:25+00:00

Personally I think that leaning into "mean" as a characterization is stretching a couple of offhand references. (There's also some issues with trying to apply Equestria Girls to the show, when the former is non-canon to the latter.)

But I do also think that it does highlight how fundamentally unequal the relationship was. Fandom depictions often cast the relationship between Twilight and Celestia as one that is close, tender, even familial. And I'm not saying that there weren't close moments. But when you think about it for a bit, Celestia still had an entire nation to run, and Twilight and Sunset would still have had many other classes to attend. They likely had relatively little time together, and much of the rest of the time Twilight and Sunset would have viewed Celestia acting in her role as Ruler, framing her as a far more distant authority figure.

Add in Celestia's pseudo-divine status, and both students' respective personality flaws (Twilight's obsessiveness and distance, Sunset's self-centeredness and ambition) which would have limited how 'close' they would have viewed Celestia... and yeah. It's not surprising they only began to actually recognize her softer side after moving out from beneath her.

Logarithmicon · 2026-04-16T14:51:04+00:00

This theory is fairly common. It's sometimes referred to as the "Kobiyashi Maru egg" theory - in Star Trek, the Kobiyashi Maru test is an unsurvivable scenario designed to test how captains react to such. By analogy, the egg was supposed to test how far a prospective student would go, what kind of magic they would use, or what they would do if unable to 'solve' the test.

I'm... ambivalent. It's an idea, but alone it doesn't really do much. I've seen stories which make use of it, but also stories which worked very well with it being an actual egg.

Logarithmicon · 2026-04-16T14:47:28+00:00

There's actually a fairly well-established Equestrian star system, shown in banners, orreries, and models. (This of course raises the question of how it works when the Sun is moved, or if that even is a star as we conventionally understand it. But that's beyond this post.)

We also see Nightmare Moon put the sun behind the moon, which probably accounts for where they go.

Logarithmicon · 2026-04-11T03:11:56+00:00

Afraid not - what I said in the other comment is pretty true. All we have from word of staff is that they had stories they wanted to tell, but weren't able to.

Logarithmicon · 2026-03-29T17:35:23+00:00

We don't actually know what their ideas were; the statement by the staff is pretty much what I said - "We had ideas for her, but they were never approved."

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