Seeing as we're all focused on history in here, I thought it might be helpful for us to share some of the headcanons we use to make sense of the background of the show, for the benefit of the group. Any unique beliefs about history you have should go here

I spend a lot of my time trying to make connections and theories about MLP and its backstory, and I've produced quite a few different theories. Unless noted otherwise, the following were entirely thought up by me.

1. The legend of the Mare in the Moon and the story of Hearth's Warming are actually one in the same, though most Equestrians don't know that. The idea of mortals moving the sun and moon is false, the windigos are a metaphor, and the squabbling between the races represents the fight between the two Royal Sisters. When Luna froze the circling sky, it deprived the ancient pony home of light and began to freeze it over. Some of the ponies were able to escape and get to a "habitable zone" with the sun just at the horizon, so that they don't burn or freeze (Equestria!), but as time passed the amount of ice forming in the old land reflected more of the sun's light and caused an Ice Age, and the bitter cold began to consume even the ponies' new home. It was while this was happening that Celestia finally gave up hope of reasoning with or defeating Nightmare Moon, and decided to utilize the Elements of Harmony (the Fires of Friendship) against her, and the firmament began moving again.

2. When Luna returned to Equestria, she spoke their equivalent of Old English, which is what we spoke 1,000 years ago. Celestia taught her new language conventions chronologically to give her a cleaner transition, so that she wouldn't be speaking a foreign language but would retain the eloquence of her original speech. When Luna began to be taught "Modern Equestrian" (since Elizabethan is technically "Modern English"), there was a misunderstanding, and she thought she was speaking what everyone else was, so she left the palace while Celestia was asleep to go and see her subjects again. Thus, Nightmare Night.

3. This one isn't mine, but was created by one of my close friends. The changelings were originally created as Nightmare Moon's soldiers a millennium ago. Luna gave them a hunger for love just like her own (she wanted love from her subjects), and gave them her shapeshifting abilities as well. When she returned to Equestria and went into the ancient castle in the Everfree, it was so that she could send out a call to summon her army. They didn't arrive in time, but nonetheless they gathered up and stormed Canterlot, just as they were called to. The reason Luna wasn't present during the events of A Canterlot Wedding was because she couldn't face her own past mistakes.

I do have others, but they're not coming to mind right now. I'll post them when I remember what they are.

Head cannons are so interesting

I have this whole mythology thing going on. Just as Celestia and Luna represent the heavenly bodies, there were beings that represented the more natural elements of the earth. These beings were revered by ponies that already inhabited the land that was chosen by the three tribes to be Equestria.

One of the beings was the Pooka, a nature spirit and fertility figure in the form a black-coated, golden-eyed pony who bore the horns, hooves, and beard of a goat. (I imagine him as being the Pony version of Pan.) While he was considered a promiscuous trickster figure and could be very petty due to his Fae nature, he was basically benevolent. Nightmare Night was originally a festival in his honor.
The story behind this is that the newcomers to the valley wished to clear the land for farming. The Pooka allowed this, but only if they allowed him a share of the crop in return. He would receive his share during these festivals, and the following day was the only day he could be approached without caution. It was on these days he would announce prophecies foretelling future events.
However, the arrival of the newcomers, and eventually Celestia and Luna, began to change the beliefs of the native ponies. They no longer regarded the forests as sacred, and instead turned their attention to the stars. As time pressed on, they forgot their pact with the Pooka entirely, and he understandably became angry. He took it upon himself to make their farmlands as infertile as possible. With their people on the verge of starvation, Celestia and Luna tried to reason with the Pooka. Bitter with resentment, he ignored their pleas and engaged them in battle.
To this day nopony knows what happened to the Pooka. Some say he was killed in battle. Others say he fled to the wilderness that lays beyond Equestria's borders. Still others say he lurks among the forests and wild places of Equestria, watching and waiting until he can return.

458376 Yes!

458389 I don't mean to Nazi you, but that's more of a fanon than a headcanon. A headcanon is simpler, meant to expand on canon subtly without complicating things. But alright, thanks for sharing

I feel that HWE is not the real story of how Equestria was founded. It's a folk story that's been built upon for thousands of years and it's not anything resembling actual history anymore. Maybe it never was. It's entirely possible that it was a story that was designed specifically to increase community togetherness during harsh Winters.

I like the idea that Queen Chrysalis was the princess in the story in Hearts and Hooves Day.

458411 I've never had a headcanon where the Hearth's Warming story was kosher, true history. It's always symbolic, skewed with time, completely fabricated, or propaganda of some sort. A lot of people follow this idea, too, mostly to reconcile it with their other fanons.

And I've heard that the princess was Chrysalis, that it was Cadence much earlier on, that the "something about a dragon and a reign of chaos" means that the potion caused Discord's rise, etc. It's interesting to think through the subtle implications of that story.

Since we're talking about Hearth's Warming Eve...
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/50746/Hearth%27s-Warming-Eve

x3

It kinda took a more happier note than I would have like, but eh.

Regarding Hearth's Warming Eve, I believe the events happened more or less as they occurred as they were told. I like to think that the Windigos were at one time ponies. Similar to the original mythology where people become Windigos when consuming human flesh, ponies could become Windigos when they are 'consumed' by hate and anger. Also similar to the myth is how they use their Nature Powers to create conditions in which ponies go mad. I believe that they naturally feed on the hatred and paranoia that arise from primal fears, such as starvation and death of exposure. (Think Donner Party or Lord of the Flies.)

So it could be that the three Windigos might have been older leaders of the three tribes whose hatred of each other transformed them into beings of cold and ice, condemned to never-ending hunger.

OK, I'll share some ideas I've been simmering for a while... Many of these will crop up in A Very Minty Summer Sun Celebration, which I am currently trying to whip into shape, and in Black Angel, which should follow shortly after.

I think the Hearth Warming Eve story was a much-simplified version of actual events, and that the unicorns really did control the sun and moon before Celestia and Luna were born. (I'm very biased against the whole idea of Celestia and Luna being eternal, all-knowing, all-powerful, all-sexy goddesses. I prefer for them to be ponies.)

Incidentally... I also don't think that Celestia raises and lowers the sun for the entire world. It doesn't make sense for cultures thousands of miles away, who've never heard of Equestria, to be dependent on her to keep their world functioning. I figure Equestria is an Enchanted Land that doesn't operate by the same rules as the rest of the world. (We already know that Everfree Forest doesn't work the same way as the rest of Equestria, for example.) Perhaps other nations even have their own magical or demigod-like figures who control their heavens, if it doesn't happen naturally.

I figure around that time there were still lots of ponies living outside of the newly-founded Equestria, and some of them were unicorn wizard/warlords vying with one another for power. They used chimerogenic spells to create monsters to fight their battles: griffins to be their soldiers, manticores and cockatrices to be battlefield weapons, etc. Finally one of these wizards went too far and created a chimera so powerful and unpredictable that it couldn't be controlled: Discord! And thus chaos was unleashed upon the world.

And, ironically, a variant of the same spells would have been used to create Sola and Luna. (In my timeline Sola didn't change her name to Celestia until after NMM was banished.) A Very Minty Summer Sun Celebration will go into a lot more detail about their origins, so I don't want to tip my hat and spoil that story.

And then Discord changed all the flutterponies (or possibly breezies, which I always liked better) into changelings, thus explaining their origins.

One final thing I have to add.... I think FiM suffered a semi-derailment at the end of Season 2. I love changelings, I think they're a fantastic gift to fanfic authors such as ourselves, but -- on the other hoof -- I just can't accept Princess Cadence as an alicorn. It doesn't make sense that we went for two whole years without ever seeing a hint of any other alicorns in existence other than Celestia and Luna, then suddenly another pops up and nopony in the show can be bothered to explain it or even mention in passing. It's Hasbro's show, and they can do that if they want, but I don't have to swallow it. If Cadence ever turns up in any of my stories, she will be a unicorn with NO WINGS.

I'm looking forward to Season 3, but I suspect I'll never even try to incorporate much of it into my own story settings. I've already got all I need to work with, and I can't be bothered with overturning and rewriting it all whenever a new episode comes out.

I used my headcannon in my story Titanomachy. MLP:FIM pulls heavily from Greek Mythology so I thought about what Discord's relationship to the alicorns would be within that context. I thought that perhaps there were once several Draconequuis, each being/representing some primal aspect of the world. In that way they fit the role of the Titans in Greek myth and the alicorns (and other species heads/gods) would fill the role of the Olympians.

Given that Tartarus was referred to by name in the series made me feel that this wasn't that big of a stretch.

458469

I actually thought about writing a story about my idea for the origins of the Changelings.

My idea is rather simple. Once, long ago, they were several tribes of Fae called Seelie--but they were constantly squabbling over who's ruler held more authority. To remedy this, they were given a beautiful queen to rule over all of them. Though she began with good intentions, she became increasingly obsessed with providing for her people to the point where she mobilized them for conquest. She kept going and going, taking more and more, until she was no longer worthy of the name Seelie. She and her people became the Unseelie, creatures that were as wicked and greedy as they were once kind and loving.

Wish i could read/post on here today but i've got freinds over, will post sunday

458550

It seems like in most mythology the faeries were considered to come from their own realm, or dimension as it were. They're alien intruders to Earth, and I'd tend to see them as intruders to Equestria as well.

That does bring something else to mind, though... We still don't know if the ponies are familiar with humans or any demihuman creatures (fairies, elves, dwarves, etc.) in their world. We haven't seen any indication of them in FiM, but waaay back in the G1 series they cropped up fairly often. It's a big world and we've seen only a tiny part of it, so who knows?

In one of my stories I had Lyra come up with the theory that ponies once had domesticated "yahoos" as servants, and that was why so many common objects seemed designed to be used with hands. (It was a bit of a joke, though, which anyone who's read Gulliver's Travels will get.)

I have theorized about the originality of Hearts and Hooves Day. In this story it said that a Prince fell in love with a Princess and gave her a love potion that turned out to be a love poison, I believe that the Prince and Princess were Princess Celestia's and Luna's mother and father. That would also explain the time when Discord ruled over Equestria, "it fell into chaos". And since the Future King and Queen could not perform their royal duties, it pasted on to their two daughters when the current King and Queen died.The Princesses were raised by the King's and Queen's servants because they were too much in love with each other to care for their daughters.... and once they were powerful enough to challenge Discord, they fought him and sealed him away to get back their Kingdom pretty sad but it makes so much since that I couldn't help but to share my theory, especially since I didn't see anyone else thought about it before

Ooh, headcanons, always fun...

Mine is relatively simple on its face, concerning the nature of Celestia and Luna, and drawing quite heavily from greco-roman mythology and later european mythology of the planetary deities, with a healthy dose of the academic writings of C S Lewis thrown in for good measure.

Short, short version is: Celestia and Luna are physical embodiments of their two spheres and thus follow their "nature". Celestia is the undimmed, constant sun. Sol Invictus and all that. She doesn't change. She almost can't change. She's the classic cursed immortal, unable to cope with death and losing friends, so she isolated herself from the world a long time ago and refuses any sort of intimacy with anyone but her most trusted student who becomes her only real emotional contact with reality.

Luna is the exact opposite. She's the moon, the huntress,, the "lunatic". She wanders and searches, often leaves on lifetime-long flights of fancy and regularly takes disguise to live amongst the ponies. She goes through a cycle of death and rebirth and her power waxes and wanes along with it. Occasionally she has to leave, take on another life and live it until death, otherwise she's driven into a frenzy. She's Odin and Hermes and - yes - Selene. A trickster and a wanderer, changeable and unpredictable and "broken".

The argument between the sisters was because of their contrasted natures. The court they established became one that catered to Celestia's needs, simply because Luna was away so often, and eventually Luna found herself isolated within a system that had slowly trapped her, leaving her alone with just the stars and jealousy of the lives regular ponies lived. When the time came for her to take another "life" away she couldn't escape at all, and in her frenzy she became the Nightmare. And you know how that ended up...

Partly went with it because it explains how Luna could change size between seasons. She used to do it all the time anyway.

It also eaves open the possibility for alicorns (or other critters) representing the other spheres. And we do have Cadence as a stand-in for Venus already... (and this of course ties in with my other bit of headcanon, that Equestria is our own world in the far, far future - after we hit the so-called diamond age or post-scarcity world and re-engineered everything for fun, complete with a working version of Tartarus - and that the tribes based their mythologies societies on the myths we left behind).

Of course now I've gone and spoiled a huge chunk of one of the fics I'm writing... oh well!

459216

If you're basing the princesses off the cycles of their respective elements, I wouldn't say that Celestia never changes. The days get longer or shorting depending on what time of year it is due to the rotation of the earth. I could see Celestia as adaptive, progressing as a person as she encounters problems, learning from her mistakes and trying to make things better.

Also, regarding the origin of Nightmare Moon, I believe that there was once a supremely evil entity that became enemies with the princesses. This being delighted in breaking and hurting others, and saw the princesses not only as threats to its power, but as a challenge to test its corrupting powers against. It found a way to corrupt Luna by convincing her that Celestia's protectiveness for her was merely a way to push her into the background.

Determined to prove herself just as brave and powerful as her sister, Luna crafted armor for herself and went to battle the evil alone. Celestia rushed to her aid, but it was too late. The entity had taken her sister, bringing her worst fear to life. Celestia could no longer protect Luna. It continued to twist the dagger by making Luna perform evil deeds, forcing Celestia to choose between her sister and all of Equestria. In the end she had to banish her sister, but even this only left the entity with mirth. It had accomplished in dividing and breaking the sisters, and that was a victory worth being banished.

Here's one. This isn't a headcanon, but an interesting idea.

Apples are the staple food of Equestria.

In the Western world, the staple crop tends to be wheat. In the Eastern world, it tends to be rice, but there's also places where corn or potatoes or yams (among others) are the staple foods. These foods tend to have quite a bit of starch and be calorie-dense.

So why would I think that apples are the staple food of Equestria? Look back at Applebuck Season. See how many apple trees there are. Doing some research into the matter, I've found that apple trees tend to produce, on average, about 800 lbs of apples per tree. Even if Sweet Apple Acres was the sole supplier for apples in the entirety of Equestria, that would still be considerably more apples than pretty much any non-staple crop consumption. Add in other producers, not to mention the fact that even their cupcakes are decorated with apple slices, and I think it's safe to say that apples could very well be considered the staple food of Equestria.

459812

It's more to do with the mythology rather than the actual physical cycles. I probably was going a little overboard, but why would I post it if I didn't wa want some pointers?

I also tend to assume that Celestia and Luna, whilst they're very close, don't really understand their own nature as well as they think, nor do the quite understand each other's. It'd explain (to me at least) why they could end up in an existential conflict over something with a relatively simple solution.

And one more: Applejack has loads of workers, they just never get mentioned.

Ok so in all honesty I came here with plans to say something, came up with a story idea instead.

459848

That kind of does make sense, but then there's the whole thing about how the seeds contain a cyanide compound.

461691

As evidenced from Owl's Well That Ends Well, they don't always eat the seeds.

Aside from that, wheat is pretty frickin' toxic, but that didn't stop Western regions from adopting it as a staple food.

Rice isn't much better, and it's the most common staple crop in the world, IIRC.

461312

Don't you love being a writer?

461312 Love it when that happens.

461691 And there's the whole thing that humans eat apples too.

461695

See, this just further asserts my belief that there's no such thing as the perfect health food, because everything we eat will kill us anyway.

You know, this brings up another point. Why don't we ever see them grazing on grass?

462163 Same reason humans don't eat ants off a stick. They could do it, and digest it just fine, but why would they when there's cake right here?

461765

But apples aren't a staple food for humans. Just because my sister eats rice, for example, doesn't mean that it's her staple food. Just because people in Hong Kong eat some wheat doesn't mean that it's their staple food. There's more to being a staple food than just, "Oh, we grow and eat it."

462163

Oh, don't get me started on my nutrition rants. Trust me, this group would not survive it. Just... head over to my profile and click the link about nutrition and my eating habits. And then, you will be enlightened.

Bottom line, what you're doing here is accepting it when the "authority" claims that something is terrible for you and is NOT a health food, and then you're also going against them on their claims of what is a health food. I'm not saying that they're right, but if you've realized that the "authority" either doesn't know what it's talking about or else is lying (depends on which "authority" that is, but either one can be true), then shouldn't you also dismiss the idea that they know what's bad for you and maybe look into whether or not that's true?

Oh, right. We do see ponies eating grass, though (or at least having that option). Remember Ticket Master? IIRC, Twilight's sandwich was made largely of grass and flowers and Spike was eating hay fries (hay can be, and commonly is, made from grass), and in Bridle Gossip, consumption of hay was mentioned again.

462338

It's really more of a cultural thing, and less of a "Oh, I want X over Y!" thing.

462347

Oh, I know they eat grass, but the thing is that we never see them eat it directly from the ground, which sounds rather convenient if they needed a quick snack while walking through the park as opposed to walking all the way to a restaurant and ordering the same thing. I suppose there's a whole cultural reason for why they don't do it, as eating someone's lawn is probably frowned upon.

462354

Do you realize how many plants around us are edible? They're all over the place. There are actually people that make it a hobby to forage, but it's still something upon which is generally frowned.

And yet, people go to restaurants to get food, paying upwards of buttloads of money.

Also, there's probably something about adaptive tastes. Our ancestors ate a lot of plain vegetation, but how many people do you know that want salads without even a little dressing? Meat without salt and/or pepper (at the very least)?

Here's a headcanon: pegasi eat fish.
Birds need way more protein in order to fly, and many of them eat fish. It does make sense that pegasi would be omnivores, since they're part-bird. I would say that they're hollow-boned like birds, but given how strong Dash is and how often she crashes, it's more likely related to the same magic that lets them walk on clouds. Without it, they wouldn't be able to lift off the ground with those tiny wings.
That's what I think, anyway.

462367 It doesn't make sense in the first place for them to fly, so why make them omnivores just so that it can make a little more sense? Seems like most ponies would be disgusted by pegasi if that were the case.

Like you said, magic. Plus, horses have a decent amount of endurance without being omnivorous, so I don't see why they couldn't hold the energy needed to fly.

462405
I suppose. But we're seen them eating eggs before in the show, and Pinkie makes a comment about how she likes her hot dogs in The Running of the Leaves. Carnivore ponies? Could be.

462409 At any rate, not carnivores. The major theory is that they're vegetarian and not vegan--they eat eggs and dairy, but not meat. As for the hot dogs, people still aren't sure about that, because Pinkie sang in Over a Barrel that "our diets are completely vegetarian."

Well, that's Pinkie for you. I think the contradictions are what make it fun, though.

Although I STILL find it just a little... I dunno, unsettling, that the dairy products come from sentient cows... hmm...

462431

They're veggie hot dogs made from soya. The original hot dogs were invented by griffons before they gave up meat, and the multicultural pony civilisations adopted and adjusted the original "recipe".

I just made that up, so whatever works for you.

530600 Ah, griffins. Most of the time when people say "They're made of soy!" they have no explanation for why the ponies made a food out of soy to imitate meat, if they never ate meat. Griffins makes sense.

One time while chatting someone brought up corn dogs, and we got into a discussion of what their corn dogs are like and where they came from. The explanation we came up for it was that, just like us, they made a food that ended up being elongated and shaped like a wiener dog, except rather than being made of meat and covered in corn they just made it right out of cornbread.

531096

Well, I like to invoke the other species to explain aspects of the show. For instance, one hypothesis I invoke is that devices that needed hands (like kettle handles or doors) were originally made for minotaur society.

As for corn dogs, your explanation makes sense, though I think the wiener dog invocation seems a little convoluted. It could be shaped like ears of corn, and simply called corn dogs because they look like hot dogs. And if the foals ask, it's just a funny name.

To get back to one of the threads of the topic (this is history, after all), one explanation I thought of to reconcile the Hearth's Warming Eve pageant and Celestia's past is that alicorns are the fourth breed of horse (with the crystal ponies a potential fifth) that separated from the others much, much earlier in history. Say, to another continent.

What happened next is that their civilization advanced in magic and technology to the point that they endangered the fabric of reality itself. They also had a lot of internal power struggles, and created most of the beasts of war that now exist as monsters in places like the Everfree. Eventually, the alicorns nearly drove themselves extinct, and Celestia and Luna (and a few distant relatives) were the only ones left.

In the meantime, Discord (and possibly some other lesser chaotic beings, like the windigoes) emerged as an amalgamation of the magic and disharmony created by their constant warring. Some of the beings then found their way back to the original three tribes, forcing them to cooperate, and hence discover their potential for friendship magic.

Not too long afterwards, the alicorns then returned to the other breeds and began to mingle with the unicorns (hence Prince Blueblood and Princess Cadence), pursued by their own creations (Discord chief among the threats). Thanks to Clover the Clever's discovery, the surviving pony breeds were able to repel Discord by creating artefacts to channel the magic of friendship. Celestia was able to persuade the ponies to entrust her and Luna with them, since friendship magic is most potent when wielded by an already-powerful being. Fortunately, Celestia and her sister displayed the qualities necessary to wield it, otherwise the artefacts would have been useless.

The rest of existence then consisted of the ponies maintaining the world by manually moving the weather, growing the food, and keeping the natural cycles going according to a schedule set down by Celestia and Luna, the idea being that they mimic what was going on before the alicorns distorted the world around them. Unfortunately, with only two thoroughbred alicorns left (and the rest of the line diluted by unicorn blood), there currently aren't enough beings able to harness the magic needed to make the repairs. This is one of the reasons why Twilight is so important.

Lastly, the flag in the pageant is either an in-universe anachronism or a sign that pony tribes had minimal contact with the alicorns (say, when they began to travel, akin to the early European explorers in the fifteenth century), viewing them as godlike beings of legend that should be used in heraldry like dragons.

I hasten to add that this isn't necessarily my own fanon. It's merely one way I like to fill in the gaps, and bits of it have probably been taken from sources I can't remember right now.

My whole idea on Discord's origins are few, but I think that he pretty much always existed, possibly as an avatar of the eventual chaos the universe is slowly devolving into.

I've another idea that there are other Draconequii that stand for basic elements of reality--Chance, creation, destruction, etc,

There's yet another idea I had but haven't really developed--That Discord is the offspring of an Alicorn and a Dragon. Something between the two causes the offspring to be of multiple parts like a dragon (Notice how Dragons have parts from different creatures, wings of a bat, scales of a reptile, horns of a goat, etc.) but in Discord's case, the parts are not uniform.

EDIT:

I've had another idea concerning the origin of the Headless Horse.

I believe that he was a Horssian soldier from Germaneigh, possibly part of a mercenary army hired for some personal battle. In said battle he lost his head to a cannonball, and has since then roamed all of Equestria searching for it.

532296 I had to explain this to the chat, too: We humans named our hot dogs after daschunds. It makes as much sense for ponies to make the same decision. Also, in the context of the chat, hot dogs weren't considered, so corn dogs couldn't have been named after them.

Not so much my personal head-canon as an interesting theory: Nightmare Moon was actually the result of a spell Luna cast on herself to try and block out the feelings of jealousy she was feeling towards Celestia, it worked for a while, but eventually the dark thoughts of hate and jealousy festered in the recesses of Luna's mind until they became a split personality, which tormented Luna in dreams and hallucinations until she finally couldn't take it anymore and decided to "let her in" resulting the other personality taking over and physically transforming her into Nightmare Moon.

533602

Fair enough, since I don't know how the name "corn dogs" may have been coined, but the name "hot dogs" isn't actually derived from dachshunds. The name was most likely derived from a 19th century New York slang word for sausages - dogs - from the folk suspicion that many sausages were made from dog meat.

Out-universe, though, I just chalk up the hot dogs reference to most writers being human and forgetting about the equine diet.

534381

I must admit I find this NMM-origin idea that Luna cast magic on herself a waiting gold mine for story, since it could be used to explore Luna's ethics and self-image, and her relationship with Celestia. As an alternative twist, perhaps Luna discovers that her secret feelings are a great source of power and gets tempted that way (sort of an inverse to friendship and love being magic). Were you thinking of writing it?

574722 Huh. I thought there was still some contention on the origin of the term, but according to Wikipedia it was definitely the dog meat thing. Nevermind, then; throw out everything I said.

574722
I'm currently far too incompetent to attempt any sort of serious fiction and lack the self confidence required for such an undertaking, but if your interested in writing it yourself, I'd love to help with ideas and such.

532576

Horssian soldier from Germaneigh

OH MY SIDES

I try to stop myself from forming headcanons so I'll be better able to enjoy all the other ideas the fandom comes up with, but a few have crept in.

Moving the sun and moon are not Celestia's and Luna's special talents, rather it's the telekinetic ability of any well practiced Alicorn. Instead, Celestia and Luna's special talents are more like divine portfolios for day and night, and include a bunch of related abilities, the most obvious being Luna's dreamwalking.

Secondly, pony neurology is considerably different from ours. I don't know nearly enough about the workings of the brain to work out details (or how unlikely it is that this would actually be possible), but the gist is that they can go insane on short notice and with relatively little provocation, but that they can recover fully after a short time having essentially worked out any issues, and that this similarly allow them to recover from other mental tampering--like Discord's whammy or any of the love curses--without long term effects that would be harmful or debilitating in other 'verses.

You are so going to regret asking me that question. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail, I have a group set up for that purpose, but I'll give you the highlights... or at least what I consider the highlights.

1) My canon is known as the Concordiat-verse, the title being taken from the official name of the Equestriani government and nation, the Concordiat.

2) Equestria is just one nation among many to be found on it's continent, which is called Atlas. The name is derived from the modern translation of the what ancients call the continent, Isle of Atlas. Everyone in our world knows what the continent was originally called, Atlantis. It is also hidden away and located smack dab in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean.

3) Yes that means humans used to walk the land, no they are no longer live on Atlas and haven't been for over 10,000 years.

4) The Sisters aren't deities, though there are gods and goddesses and the Sisters are in some metaphysical way descendent of one, Epona the patron goddess of the Ponies.

I think that is enough for now and for those who are interested here in the link to the group where I am collecting my notes: Equestriani Concordiat

I tried to start writing a story that would provide my unified version of Equestrian History, but, deciding that criticism was more important than principles, I am sort of putting it on hold. Anyway, as to my actual head-cannon, I was working on making it as coherent as possible, but I know that I am not even close to being there.

1. The first thing I tried to deal with was the obvious imbalance between the power of Celestia and Discord. Discord was able to seize control of the Sun from Celestia, so why not simply snap her into non-existence before she could use the elements. I could think of no answer that would be justified by canon material, so I looked elsewhere.

2. Discord represents Chaos, the Elements of Harmony represent, well, Harmony, but those two are not exactly opposites. In my view, the scales wee unbalanced, with Chaos having no equal, opposite force, so I invented one. Have a Spirit of Order to counter Discord, and all of a sudden, Discord's failure to eviscerate Celestia and Luna becomes more plausible. He didn't do anything to them because they were either protected by Order, or because they were deemed insignificant in comparison.

3. The strange nature of the world as compared to our own was another thing that I felt could be explained through this method. If Equestrian history is viewed as a struggle between these two conflicting concepts, then the reasons why the world works the way it does makes more sense. Cutie marks are an excellent method of ensuring that ponies are assigned jobs that they enjoy, likely increasing efficiency. Weather control allows for increased crop yields, and removes the threat of several different types of natural disasters. Establishing pony control over the sun and moon ensures that ponies become nearly untouchable, because to anger their leaders would risk ending all life.

3a. This also could explain why only some of the creatures in the world have cutie marks. My idea had been that, upon entering the coalition created by Order, the new entrants gained the advantages that he conferred upon ponies in general.

4. I also liked the idea of the Crystal Empire, because if there is anything that screams "ORDER INCARNATE!" it is an empire, with a single Emperor, based around CRYSTALS.

5. The final thing that I tried to explain was why none of this was known. My solution was that when Celestia and Luna discovered the Elements of Harmony, they used them to imprison both Order and Chaos, since both of them represented extremes that nopony would want to live under. When Order's Empire eventually collapsed under its own weight, as it would inevitably do without its god-emperor to run it, much of the history was lost.

There is more, as I hope would be obvious because this is a very very very rough explanation, but I am having difficulty condensing it. I am unwilling to admit just how much time I have personally spent flushing out these ideas, because to do so would be to admit just how non-existent my social life is.

For anyone who is farmiliar with my works... history in G4 happens as-is (hearth's warming eve, etc.) Then everything goes down the drain a few Centuries after the events of FiM. In my headcannon Equestria not only has a rich history, Equestria itself is a PART of Ponykind's rich past, and is long gone.

Just watch out because I also have a LOT of spare time and I do think/ daydream/ plot.
Oh and SPOILER ALERT: I HAVE CRAPPY GRAMMER AND PUNCTUATION

Ahem,
My head cannon concerns the creation of Equestria and by extension the "Earth" that they live on (Later called 'Equine') it also concerns how Celestia/Luna came to exist (there's also and explanation for human habits/culture/technology being present).

1. The Creation of Equine

In the beginning of time in the universe there were four humanoid deities, the first was a writer, second was a musician, thirdly there was an actor, and lastly there was an artist. These four created the world each giving a single aspect. The writer was the first most contributing when he looked at the vast emptiness and pulled his typewriter form a suitcase, he began to type. He typed up the ideals and the foundation for all of the others works and as he typed the emptiness took shape and formed a flat plane that was devoid of all life and inhabitants. The Artist was then next to contribute and he looked upon the plane and smiled, she pulled the fountain pen from her pocket and began to draw the inhabitants that would populate the world. As she drew much came to exist the flowers grew from the grass and the animals began to move but when ever the made the slightest sound all was quiet. The Actor looked at this and gave the voice that allowed all creature to speck to each other. And the musician looked upon the world filled with chatter and nose and decided to give them organization, he leaned over and removed his violin from his case both worn from time and use. He drew his bow across the strings and the first music began to play in the land, the plants swayed back in forth creating a melody of brush, the elements took the first walks through the land creating the bass for the concerto's of life to follow the deep 'thrumming' echoing through the lands, and the animals rose onto their legs and began their chorus of barks and chips.
After they finished the work at hand the quartet of gods walked about their land but it did not take long for the writer to look about and realize that though the world had animals it was devoid of a race worthy to accommodate them.

2. The First Race

Originally the world of Equine was built for a different race of beings, humans in a way. But the humans here were very different than you or I. The humans that the four created were named "Ground Folk" due to how the first ran to the fertile hills of eh grasslands and made their houses in the hills themselves.
At first all prospered, the Ground Folk prospered, farming and creating they invented machines to do the work that they could not, but they could only manage to harness the power of steam and so they were limited to this technology. After a length of time the Ground folk moved to the mountains as they had filled the hills with their kin. Arriving there they dug cities out of the solid rock and outfitted them with the finest luxuries. Soon all of the buildings were filled with the finest artisans and inventors that all created the finest works of art and steam.
But as with all good things they had to come to an end, even the stars and moon will one day blow to dust and so the days came that the folk of the hills became unhappy for the first time in the existence of their race, seeing the people in the mountings that were aptly named "Mountain Folk" living in the lap of luxury and early lifting a finger. Of course the Mountain Folk saw the same thing but mirrored. They saw how ungrateful the Hill Folk were for their work and so each party broiled with hatred until the day that the wars ensued. They were very quick and clean though because as soon as the first rock was thrown the writer came down and frowned upon the creations. He told them of their foolishness and removed several sheets of paper from his briefcase. He took a match from his pocket and lit it putting it to the paper and watching it burn. As the fire crept up the paper the people of the world started to disappear until there were none.

3. The Second Race

Soon after the writer returned to his three comrades and pleaded that they create a second race, at first they were hesitant but eventually they all agreed and set to work.
This time the creatures would not be in there image and after much debate they decided on the race of ponies, as they already existed and could live off the land. so they wet to work giving them voice and life. After the work was finished three of the four deities left and roamed the universe perpetually. One stayed behind, the writer, he had grown fond of the ponies and watched over them, teaching them of the past race and their technology, showing them how their house and how they lived. Soon the ponies began living in houses and using the technology of olden times.
At first there was only one race of ponies, Earth, and soon the writer saw how this was a problem, due to the absence of his fellow gods the lands needed to be manipulated manually. To remedy this he created pegusi and gave them the power to manipulate weather, and alongside them he made unicorns to move the sun and moon. Soon after this he felt out of place in their world and thus stayed away, hiding in the ruins of destroyed and ancient cities.
Soon story turned to rumor, rumor to myth, and myth to legend and in time the stories of humans and the four deities were all but forgotten. The writer knowing this decided that he should find two ponies to keep and eye on the world above as he no longer wished to watch over them.

4. The Creation of Celestia and Luna (This is where shit gets real)

(Told from Princess Luna's Perspective)
In the beginning me and my sister were born earth ponies Celestia, as fillies we loved to go exploring and there was no shortage of ruins to explore where we lived,one day me and my sister went into the some ruins by our house, we had been told not to go into those ruins before but because of our parents insistence we were curious, when we entered the main chamber of what could have been a bank or a concert hall we heard a clear clicking sound followed by a bell. We soon made our way to were the sound was coming from and there was a thing, a Hill Folk, he kept looking at a paper and clicking away at his box, he was odd if anything he looked rather comical looking a lot like a jumble of bones inside of a suit,
we watched him really scared until l Celestia stood up and said "I'm gonna talk to it"
she trotted up to the thing as asked it's name, the Hill Folk looked around really scared and that's when I knew for some reason that he wasn't a monster, he was probobly more scared of us than we were of him. Looking around he saw us and stood from his chair and asked us our names. I thought we shouldn't tell it but Celestia spoke and told it our names before I could say a thing, at first it didn't say a word just picked up a huge book from beside it's desk and placed it on the table opening it and going down until he came on something and smiled and looked at us
"I've been expecting you" he said sounding like he was made of dust and time "And your late of all things too, you should have been here 3,218 years 5 months 6 days and 12 minutes ago"he pointed at us accusingly and went over to a crate and pulled out a crown and little shoes "I've long since grown to tired of this job, so your the new rulers of the land, the time of my watching over the ponies is over and now yours begins" he pointed to the crate and and he said "you'll find all you need to be a good leader there and over there" he pointed at the book on the desk "is the History of the world, please keep it safe, keep it hidden if you can" he looked at us again pausing as if he forgot something, starting up in a flash she spoke again "now put the things I gave you on I want to see if they work" so we put them on and as soon as the final articular was us a blinding flash all went whit and a look at each other showed that we were now Alicorns "Good, well I've done all I can and now I must be off" he turned around and picked up a grey coat a shot round hat and some weird things in the shape of his hooves.
Then Tia looked at him and said "wait, who are you, helping us?"
He looked at me and smiled "oh I have no name but if you must pin a name to me call me a Writer" Tia looked surprised and quickly responded "but why are you helping us?" He looked at us and smiled "Because, no thing should make the mistakes others did, read the paper it will tell you a lot of needed information" and then he leaned over and patted the top of both our heads and said "Thank you for releasing me" and then he blew away like he was made of dust, leaving nothing.

That's my Head Cannon enjoy.

Hearth's Warming is very different from what we saw on the show. That version has been bowdlerized and dumbed down for the kids.

What really happened is more akin to A Brief History of Equestria's version of the tale.

I'll copy-paste my headcanon from my User Page.

BW= Before Warming.
AW= After Warming.
Reign of Chaos= Discord's reign, no known time.
CE= Celestial Era, Princesses Celestia and Luna's reign.

1000 BW-0 BW:

1. There was an ancient Pegasus Empire (Roaman Empire) which was ruled by a Cesare/Caesar (who was always a mare. Stallions were just walking sperm-banks and the Empire's shields to them in those times). Anyone born and living outside the Empire (including pegasi) were considered 'savages' or 'wild ponies'.
In those times, Earth Ponies (outside of the Roaman Empire) lived in communal herds or clans scattered around Everfree Valley (an area where today there are Ponyville and the Everfree Forest). They had shamans or druids (most had druids) as their priests and sages. They were less cruel to stallions, but mares still had more dominance.

2. In 300 BW, the Free Earth Pony herds unified themselves and became more organised to resist the neighbouring powers, especially the Roamans, more effectively, becoming the Each* Confederation.

* Each is Gaelic meaning 'horse'.

Ancient Earth Pony Pantheon:

Goddess of the Earth and Queen of the Earth Pony gods and goddesses.
God of Strength and War.
Goddess of Water and Lakes.
Goddess of Trees.
God of Fertility.
Goddess of the Seasons, Life and Birth.
Goddess of Souls and Queen of the Afterlife.

3. The Roaman Pegasi could only conquer a small area of the Everfree Valley due the persistent and strong resistance from the Earth Pony herds/clans. So, to prevent the "wild horses" from invading their empire, they built a wall bordering the empire and the 'wildlands' (with Earth Pony slaves, mind you). Today, this wall is called the Everfree Wall and its remains are still found deep in the Everfree Forest.

4. Unicorns were once forest dwellers like the Silvan Elves in Mirkwood in The Lord of the Rings. Though during the times of the Roaman Empire, most Unicorn herds started to form their own fortresses and city-states and united in a Confederation ruled by a monarch (a king, unicorns are the only pony race who are patriarchal by nature in my headcanon) as a Kingdom and called it Adharcachland*. They were enemies to the all Pegasi and looked down upon the "forest-dwellers" as simple ponies and savages.

* Adharcach means 'horn'/'horny' in Scottish Gaelic. Unicorn in Gaelic is 'aon-adharcach'.

Unicorn Rulers of Adharcachland:
King Aegis Shine (unified and founded the Unicorn Kingdom) (987 BW-968 BW)
King Star Shine (968 BW-950 BW)
King Dusk Shine (950 BW-935 BW)
Princess Twinkle Shine (935BW-933 BW)
King Ferrous Armour (married to Princess Twinkle Shine) (933BW-900BW)
King Silver Armour (900 BW-897 BW) (No heirs)
First Anarchy (897 BW-864 BW)
King Red Spell (864 BW-843 BW)
King Silver Spell (843 BW-819 BW)
King White Spell (819 BW-798 BW)
Princess Violet Spell (798 BW-766 BW) (No heir)
Second Anarchy (766 BW-762 BW)
King Red Jewel (762 BW-745 BW)
King Gold Jewel (745 BW-731 BW)
King Silver Jewel (731 BW-719 BW)
Princess Diamond Jewel (719 BW-715 BW)
King Pure Crown (married to Princess Diamond Jewel) (715 BW-698 BW)
King Gold Crown (698 BW-694 BW) (No heir)
King Long Sword (killed King Gold Crown during the War of the Gems) (694 BW-679 BW)
King Great Sword (679 BW-655 BW)
King Silver Sword (655 BW-651 BW) (No heir)
Princess Ruby Sword (King Silver Sword's sister) (651 BW-637 BW) (No heir)
Third Anarchy (637 BW-634 BW)
King Night Sky (634 BW-602 BW)
King Lunar Sky (602 BW-575 BW)
King Sunny Sky (575 BW-549 BW)
Princess Starry Sky (549 BW-544 BW)
King Fool's Gold (married to Princess Starry Sky) (544 BW-520 BW)
King Shiny Gold (520 BW-499 BW)
King Blueblood Solar I (married to King Shiny Gold's daughter Princess Pure Gold) (499 BW-473 BW)
King Blueblood Solar II (473 BW-446 BW)
King Blueblood Solar III (446 BW-429 BW)
Princess Platinum Solar I (429 BW-425 BW) (No heirs)
King Emerald Solar I (Princess Platinum Solar I's first cousin) (425 BW-401 BW)
King Emerald Solar II (401 BW-386 BW)
Princess Platinum Solar II (386 BW-384 BW)
King Royal Solar I (married to Princess Platinum Solar II) (384 BW-379 BW)
King Blueblood Solar IV (379 BW-358 BW)
King Blueblood Solar V (358 BW-321 BW)
King Blueblood Solar VI (321 BW-303 BW)
King Royal Solar II (303 BW-286 BW)
King Regal Solar (286 BW-267 BW)
King Emerald Solar III (267 BW-209 BW)
King Blueblood Solar VII (209 BW-137 BW)
King Blueblood Solar VIII (137 BW-94 BW)
King Blueblood Solar IX (94 BW-9 BW)
Princess Platinum Solar III (9 BW-0 BW)

5. During its peak of power, the Crystal Empire was a rival to its southern neighbour, the Roaman Empire. It also had a shaky relation to its other neighbour, Kingdom of Gryphonia too.

6. Griffins had a large kingdom in the mountains north of where today is Equestria called Gryphonia (the griffins of this kingdom were called Gryphons). There were also secluded tribes (Aeries) on the mountains outside of Gryphonia who were giving both the Roamans, Unicorns, Earth Ponies and Gryphons trouble by raiding and pillaging their lands, but mostly the ponies due to being their main diet. Gryphons and Roamans were arch-rivals and competed for power.
The Kingdom of Gryphonia had a very rich culture of mountain-side architecture (a bit like Canterlot, but bigger and filled with Colossi) and military honour. It had gotten battered throughout history and survived, and during Discord's Reign of Chaos it only was affected in its southern borders.

7. North of the Crystal Empire and west of Gryphonia was a cold and inhospitable kingdom of reindeer called the Kingdom of Renarland. The deer of Renarland were known as the Caribou.
________________

After Founding of Equestria:

The Reign of Chaos started in 846 AW.

8. During Discord's Reign of Chaos, civilisation in Equestria collapsed, reducing ponies back to herd structure. Nopony knows how long it lasted, some say few months, some say few years, others say centuries. Affected either by Discord's influence or the collapse of Equestrian civilisation, some ponies living outside Canterlot's surroundings had gone feral and started living in the wilds and marauding other herds.

9. In 100 CE, a bloody civil war broke out in Gryphonia and shattered the Kingdom into tiny city-states. Many Equestrian griffins are descendants of Gryphon refugees during the fall of Gryphonia.

10. Immediately after Discord is defeated, Equestria would be the size of just Canterlot and it's surroundings after what felt like an eternity of anarchy and chaos. After rebuilding what was left with them, they started expanding their land, usually meeting herds of feral ponies marauding the slowly recovering Equestria. After having its old territory back, Equestria expanded, starting with some surrounding islands and up north.

11. The Equestrian Empire consisted of:

Equestria.
The Eastern Isles.
Some Gryphonia successor states (Federberg, Schnabelia, Adlerberg, Im Hals der Welt).
North, Eastern, and Central Zebrica.
Saddle Arabia.
The Frozen North.

12. In 236 CE, there was a land dispute between Renarland, Equestria and the Griffin city states involving the annexation of the cities between the two empires. Princess Celestia tried to resolve the dispute peacefully using diplomacy, while Princess Luna prepared the Imperial Equestrian Army in case things escalate to war between Equestria and Renarland. The dispute could have ended peacefully if only groups of griffin insurgents didn't start attacking both Equestria and Renarland occupied cities. After that incident, both empires blamed each other for egging on the insurgents to attack their cities and started the war. The Renarland-Equestria war lasted for 3 years until both imperial powers made a pact to keep only border cities and keep the rest of the Griffin cities neutral to keep the peace.

13. The empire prospered for centuries, until it disbanded after the War of Day and Night, becoming the Equestria we know today.
________________

Headcanon is still WIP.

Well, quite a few of my headcanons were jossed by season four, but there are plenty more that weren't. A lot actually. It's similar to what's pointed out in the bible thread for my fanverse, but okay.

Like some, I see Cadance as associated with Venus. Similarly, Discord, Chrysalis and Leo have their own heavenly bodies. (Eris, Ganymede and Triton) Every sapient race has an equivalent to the alicorns. Beings who draw power from the potential of their entire races and rule over the concepts associated with a heavenly body. They are not immortal. Just hardy and slow aging. Their have been many associate with each heavenly body.

Will add more later.