The 50 headcanon questions

1. How old are Celestia and Luna?
Low (century-wise) 1000s. I don't want them some unrelatable ancient creatures from the abyss off time.

2. How old is Cadance?
Her and Shining are around 10 years older than Twilight, in their 30s.

3. Were Celestia and Luna always alicorns, or did they ascend?
Former Earth Pony and Pegasus, respectively.

4. Are Cadance and Twilight immortal?
Yes. Dying is a part of becoming and alicorn, and the undead to not grow weak with age. They still can be destroyed, however.

5. Have there been other alicorns in the past?
The Old Alicorn*, creator of the Alicorn Amulet, is no longer quite around. Discord and Leo (of the Sea Ponies) are the partially-pony alicorns.

* Origin: the Polish dub calls the AA the 'old Alicorn's Amulet'.

6. How much authority do Celestia and Luna have in Equestria?
The important things to consider here are: Celestia's call in life is teaching, not ruling, and has a tendency to delegate even things she probably should be doing herself, as long as there is somepony who might manage the task and learn from it; she and Luna took over in the times when the rule of the strong was the standard; and most importantly: she is massively popular, and there aren't many ponies loyal to law or Equestria in abstract but not even more loyal to her personally. As such, Equastrians would let her get away with a number of things that are by law illegal for her to do, and wouldn't quite let her get away with exercising certain powers she legally has.

7. Does Shining Armor rule The Crystal Empire along side of Cadance?
Yes. Due to time displacement the Crystal Empire is running on over a millennium old rules, which are "you save it, you bought it". Celestia and Luna got their position on the same basis. It's a non-inheritable for-life thing, the Crystal Empire pre-Sombra didn't even have royalty, using the Ancient Rome system.

8. Other than Twilight, Luna, and Cadance, what relationships have been important to Celestia in her lifetime (students, close friends, lovers, family)?
No characters in particular, but she has a tendency to treat everypony she interacts with at any length as her student. She used to have a more active familty life, but her current closest descendants are grand-grandchildren; she didn't have any serious romantic engagements this century. She does however has a number of casual friends among her staff, some with occasional benefits.

Ponies and Equestrian Culture:

9. Are there still cultural differences between earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns, or is the culture homogeneous by the time shown in canon? Are there cultural stereotypes (positive or negative)?
The races do not form distinct cultural groups themselves, but there are ethnic groups composed primarily of one race. The largest and most distinct one is formed of pegasi who never go close to the ground, with Cloudsdale as the meeting point between them and the mainstream Equestrian culture. There are also groups formed primarily of Earth Ponies living in more remote parts of Equestria. Unicorns are fully integrated into the mainstream, and are found most commonly in large cities.

10. Are there foods or items native to Cloudsdale that are uncommon on the ground? Are there foods or items on the ground that are uncommon in Cloudsdale?
Fish are a traditional staple of pegasi cuisine unlike the more plant-based diet of groundbound ponies, while a certain kind of algae that can be grown cloudoponically is the basis of food among the Cloud Ponies.

11. Can all unicorns learn all spells, given the time and effort spent practicing them, or is magical talent usually limited in some way?
Each unicorn finds a couple of areas they find easy to learn, while all others are highly difficult. There are some true universalists like Twilight as well as, more commonly, ponies whose areas of expertise are very broad like Trixie and Sunset Shimmer. It is important to note 'magic' isn't really one thing - conjuring flame and telekinesis are simply different skills as related as playing pool and swimming - Twilight's special talent is equivalent to being good at all sports or all crafts.

12. Earth pony magic: Does it exist? What is it?
Lacking specialized external organs for projecting magic, an earth pony's body is saturated with energy. It cam be transferred via touch and used to enhance one's body or held objects, but also seeps out as a uniform aura allowing for supernatural perception ability and slow, long term influence on the surrounding area. They also have a natural affinity with hammerspace and the touch-range telekinetic ability common to all hooved races. It is about es diverse as Unicorn spellcasting and Pegasus elemental powers.

13. Some pony families we’ve seen seem to have naming conventions (the Apples, Twilight’s family) and others don’t appear to (Rarity’s family, Pinkie’s family), which is more common? Are there reasons for one or the other?
No headcanon.

14. How much formal schooling is an average, middle class pony expected to complete?
Education available is roughly modern, but going to the university is far less common. Most finish after high school and learn by working or go to a technical school. While cutie marks do not decide what a pony will do in life, ponies generally have more direction in life and more idea what they want to do than humans, and thus more readily focus on learning what's important to them.

15. What’s the average lifespan for a pony? At what age is a pony expected to be independent of their parents?
Human average for a typical pony, with random multicentenarian outliers.

16. Are there roughly an equal number of male and female ponies?
Close to equal with a noticable edge for females, except for Earth Ponies who can have up to 2-3:1 ratio either way, subject to the local environment. They are sensitive to their surroundings like that.

17. How informed are most ponies about things that happen in other parts of Equestria? What about other parts of the world?
Ponies have demonstrated an amazing tendency to be oblivious to what's happening outside of their settlement. Equestria is located on the kind of fantasy world where most of the world is ignorant of most of the rest of the world. Chrysalis says she became aware of Equestria's only recently, and she was actually exploring the world looking for food. The beings that control the heavens and the country they rule are seriously obscure knowledge.

The Main Characters:

18. How old are the Mane Six? Spike? The CMC?
Mane 6 early 20s, Spike 15ish, CMC 12.

19. Did Fluttershy remain on the ground after getting her cutie mark? Were she and Rainbow Dash friends all along, or did they drift apart for a while?
22. When did Pinkie move in with the Cakes? Is she a worker who rents a room, an apprentice, or is there some other relationship?
Both moved after finishing school. Shy and Dash were kind of friends. Pinkie and the Cakes are family. The fact that you are even asking whether they Flutter decided to abandon her family at the age of 8 is a bit disturbing.

20. Rarity and Applejack both seem to have grown up in Ponyville. What were their interactions like before the show?
Rarity always strived to keep her distance from the least fancy people. Applejack respects that sort of thing.

21. What do Twilight and Spike consider their relationship to be?
"Number one assistant" means a lot of things to Spike. Twilight doesn't really know what to make of it.

23. Who among the Mane Six had the best parents growing up? The worst parents?
No specific parent headcanons.

24. Why didn’t the CMC hang out more/know each other before Call of the Cutie?
Scoot was the catalyst, and she only moved in recently.

25. Is Scootaloo an orphan? Will she ever be able to fly?
We saw her house. And she will be a good flier.

26. Will Apple Bloom’s cutie mark involve an apple in some way, even if it’s unrelated to farming or baking?
There will be some form of apple there, but it's meaning will not involve apples in any way.

27. How is Sweetie Belle’s relationship with their parents different than Rarity’s was?
Rarity was always trying to be contrary and different. Sweetie likes attention.

Side and Background Characters:

28. Is Mr. Cake the father of the Cake twins or not?
The twins look like him, especially Pumpkin. Heteropaternal superfecundation with two fathers who happen to look a lot like him seems very unlikely. Now that I think about it, if the hypothetical pagasus and unicorn fathers were closely related, the whole thing paints a picture of Carrtot's family having a tradition of interracial breeding just for the heck of it. O_o

29. Are Big Mac and Cheerilee an item, romantically?
No, but they have taken to flirting, partially as a running joke. They do enjoy it in itself, though.

30. How did Prince Blueblood get his title?
"Prince" is the first half of his name. He is nobility, though.
That or he's one of the random multicentenarians, a venerable old bastard from an earlier age of Equestria. Then he's a genuine Unicorn Prince, and a true asshole (the version above is just kind of a dumbass).

31. Is Silver Spoon equally as bad as Diamond Tiara?
Not interested in the character, no headcanon.

32. Is Zecora’s magic common among zebras?
Zecora does not have any magic worth talking about. Potionmaking isn't really more common amongst zebras than ponies, and Zecora herself is a witch / low grade mad scientist. Zebras are besically Earth Ponies with a slightly different theme, magically speaking.

33. Why does Daring Do publish her stories as fiction?
Daring's tomb robbery can often fail to bring in any good money, particularly due to her competition including doomsday cultists that need to be stopped for self-preservation reasons. The fame of a hero can be more reliably monetized.

34. Do you have a strong headcanon for any non-speaking or one line background ponies that you want to share?
Nothing strong, no.

Other Species:

35. Does Equestria differentiate between speaking and non-speaking species, in terms of respect, rights and legal responsibilities? Is there some other line or scale used? (For example, how are cows classified? Diamond Dogs? A chimera?)
Equestria is on the kind of world where meeting someone of a species you've never heard of is not a particularly odd occurrence - in fact, aside from some of the more established species like cows, it's typical. The ponies of Ponyville were completely unaware of the existence of zebras and griffons, for instance. As such, laws generally use blanket statements about sentient beings or citizens unless they are written to deal with a specific race. It needs to be noted that a large number of sentient creatures are not at all interested in participating in the pony society. 'Domestic' animals prefer to have a trusted pont they have a personal relationship with, an 'owner', who handles the society for them.

36. Do other speaking species form their own nations, or are all nations largely integrated, with some having larger populations of a species than others?
I'm fuzzy on the existence of others at all, aside from Gryffindoor and Zebrica.

37. Are minotaurs related to cows at all?
The origin of minotaurs is not evolution. They were created based on partially cows, and are genetically compatible, making them the same species by some definitions.

38. Do all zebras rhyme?
It's a stupid gimmick and I prefer to ignore it. If I were to write Zecora, she'd be fond of rhyming puns and sayings but not talking in rhyme all the time.

39. Do zebra cutie marks work the same way as pony cutie marks?
Well, obviously they don't look the same and are even more abstract, but yes. They are abstract symbols for things they treasure in life.

40. Do any species have types of magic, other than ponies and zebras?
Essentially everyone has something, but sometimes it's not very impressive.

41. Is the lack of buffalo presence in Equestria cultural, or simply because most pony towns aren’t built to accommodate a full grown buffalo?
The buffalo are for the most part not interested in moving to Equestria, and before Appleoosa knew little beyond 'there is a pony country to the north'.

Headcanon and You:

42. Do you consider official sources other than the show (comics, card game text, movies, novels, etc.) to be canon?
The comics and novels, to the extent of my knowledge of them. I don't really care about the movie one way or the other. Card game text no.

43. Do you have one headcanon that you always use, or do you switch depending on projects?
My headcanon ranges from interpretation of the show to cute ideas, some of which are contradictory.

44. Can you easily accept the headcanons of different writers? Do you prefer when stories match your headcanon?
Don't really care about compatibility with my cute ideas headcanons, but many of my other headcanons have roots in my ethical beliefs, so disagreement on that can be important.

45. Is there a part of your headcanon that you wish was more popular among writers?
Discord is not in any way an embodiment of chaos. He isn't even good at chaos, for crying out loud, just powerful. Cutie Marks are an expression of what a pony finds important to them, not verdicts of fate.

46. Is there a popular piece of headcanon that other writers use that you dislike?
Making Cadance a thousand years old is creepy. "More strength and good at farming" is a shitty magic to have compared to unicorns and pegasi. Guys, the Elements are a totally obscure artifact, ponies do not have a religion, philosopby, important tradition, magical power or anything else called Harmony. What do you have against Shining Armor being Cadance's equal, everyone I've seen answering those questions makes him Prince-Consort.

47. Have you ever written a story or blogpost just to explain some part of your headcanon (other than this one)?
Nope.

48. Does your headcanon influence things like your favorite pony, ship, or episode?
Headcanon is the way we prefer to see the world of Equestria. Obviously that includes favorite ships and characters. No relation with the episodes themselves.

49. Would it bother you if the show proved part of your headcanon wrong? Any specific piece that would really bother you to lose?
As I mentioned earlier, I have declared that Zecora does not speak in rhyme in my headcanon.

50. Is there something that wasn't asked about here, but you feel like you need to explain to everyone?
Can't think of anything.